The charred white walls stand visible to much of Tempe as a misfit from its Mill Avenue urban jungle. The archaic building, surrounded by college city-life, with letters spelling out “Hayden Flour Mill” barely visible on the east side of the building, offer a slight clue to its past. Though its presence is well known, its history is not, resulting in the countless mysteries and ghost stories that surround the old mill.
“I’ve walked by it,” sophomore Colleen Barnett says. “It’s kind of creepy. Everything fits together in the area and it’s kind of random.”
The Hayden Flour Mill, located on the southeast corner of Mill Avenue and Rio Salado Parkway, has been at the same location dating back to before the 1900s when Charles Trumbull Hayden began operating the first mill in the same location.
A Connecticut native, Hayden traveled to Arizona around the 1850s where he founded a freighting business (moving items around by wagon or boat) to offer supplies, including equipment, tools and food to various establishments, says Jared Smith, curator of history at the Tempe History Museum.
Hayden, who is credited with founding Tempe, was away on a business trip to Fort Whipple where present day Prescott is when he got held up by high water levels in the Salt River, forcing him to camp there for a couple of days.
“The story, as it goes, is that Hayden used some of that time to climb a Tempe butte and had an epiphany of the areas potential,” Smith says.
The lay of the land would have looked much different from present day Tempe, according to Smith. “It would have been all thick with mesquite trees and cactus. It would have been a big job to do anything.”
In an article written for the Tempe website, Thomas Jones describes the original mill:
“Initially, one grinding stone was installed, with room to add more if necessary. The mill foundation was constructed on bedrock, with a waterwheel powered by a waterfall, which was reported by two separate correspondents as 24 ft and 30 ft in height …”
Smith says the number of individuals working at a time probably fluctuated over the course of the year depending on the season. But it must have taken at least a dozen people to work it.
“It would have been hot, dirty, nasty work,” Smith says. “We’re talking about heavy sacks had to be moved around and they had to be careful around the material. There was also danger from possible grain and dust explosions.”
The life of the first mill however was short-lived. The structure burned down in 1890, according to an article on the Tempe website. And after building a new mill, that too burned down in 1917.
Smith says the individuals working for the mill used the fires as an opportunity to make improvements to it and create a better structure – even adding two silos in the early 1950s to hold more grains.
After several decades of operation however, the Hayden Flour Mill closed in March of 1998 where it still stands today relatively untouched.
The Hayden Four Mill has become an iconic monument of the Tempe heritage, reminding the public of the development the city has made from its industrious beginnings to its current college atmosphere.
“It makes me want to take a second look at it,” Barnett says. “Makes me want to learn about the history and what happened to it.”
Contact the reporter at clhahne@asu.edu
