708 W Santa Fe Trail St

Sometimes people ask me if I’m ever going to run out of buildings to write about. Probably not! The challenge is the “then” photo or in this case, the engraving. I’ve wondered about the Sunset Roller Mills for quite some time and it turns out the facility actually didn’t start as a roller mill at all.

Newspapers had been regularly nagging about the need for a flouring mill by 1878. H. F. May and Company of Decatur, Illinois purchased land for this purpose from R. W. Evans in January of 1879.

Construction was in progress by March and the mill equipment arrived that April. The building was completed in May and Dodge City Flouring Mills ground their first wheat on June 11, 1879. There were three runs of stone burrs; two were used for wheat and one for corn.

Oliver Marsh bought half interest in the business in March of 1882 and purchased additional shares that September. H. F. May & Co. was dissolved effective November 16, 1882 and the facility was operated by O. Marsh & Co.

Improvements were made in July of 1883 to double processing capacity. In November of 1883, F. M. Reamer bought half interest and the new firm was called Marsh & Reamer. That partnership was dissolved in February of 1884. Marsh then sold the operation to George M Hoover in July of 1884.

The 1884 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows Dodge City Mills as an inset without a definite location. It just shows the four-floor frame structure directly south of the railroad tracks with no exposure on the east side. The smutter was located in the basement with grinding on the first floor, bolting on the second floor, and cleaning on the third floor.

In March of 1885, work was underway to replace the stone burrs with rollers to increase production capacity. The name was changed that summer to Sunset Flouring Mill.

Or Sun-Set Mills. It depended on who was creating the display ads.

The 1887 Sanborn shows the mill at the west end of South Front Street. Yes, Virginia, there were two Front Streets. If Pala Dura (now 7th Avenue) had been a through-street, it would have run right through the middle of the property.

This engraving shows the mill with a rail siding to the north, a wagon loading dock to the south, and a warehouse to the west.

The Sunset Roller Mills buildings were destroyed by a fire on April 8, 1890, presumably due to a spark from a Santa Fe locomotive. It was a total loss and despite Hoover’s substantial investment, he carried no insurance on the property. By this time, the Rock Island line ran to the southeast of the building and several railroad ties were burned.

There was immediate talk about rebuilding, but not by George Hoover. Instead, Chalk Beeson recruited Gund and Ballard of Nebraska to establish a new mill in 1891. This facility was constructed south of the Santa Fe Depot.

Hoover’s property sat empty for several years, aside from a couple small frame railroad structures. Finally, the site was selected by the Farmers’ Elevator and Supply Company for a new grain handling facility in March of 1906.

The foundation was completed in early May and operations commenced in August of 1906.

By November, the elevator was shipping an average of two cars of wheat daily.

The 1911 Sanborn shows the ironclad wood frame Farmers’ Elevator situated north of the power plant on West Santa Fe Trail Street. A coal shed was located at the southwest end of the rail siding. The office and scales were located just to the northeast of the elevator. This map includes a rare error; The year of construction is incorrectly shown as 1905.

The company began selling Colorado coal in 1909.

That July, the best wheat tested at 63 pounds per bushel and the company was paying $1.06 per bushel. People were excited!

In June of 1915, it was announced that Farmers’ Equity Union bought the elevator effective July 1 of that year.

However, Dodge City Cooperative Exchange was formed June 21, 1915 and that entity actually operated the facility. The 1918 Sanborn shows the Dodge City Cooperative Exchange with additional storage structures along the Rock Island rail siding.

The string of buildings along the rail siding were improved and consolidated over the years. A new concrete elevator was built in 1941 and the old facility was used as a feed mill.

The old elevator was destroyed by a fire on November 9, 1942.

It contained approximately 20,000 bushels of barley, milo, kafir, and other feed grains. Very little was able to be salvaged for use as hog feed.

New feed mill excavations began in February of 1943 for a structure reportedly measuring 32 x 42 feet and 95 feet tall. After many decades of ownership by Dodge City Cooperative Exchange, the facility is now operated by Pride Ag Resources.

This is how the site of the Sunset Roller Mills looks today:

I never cease to be amazed by all the places I’ve walked or driven past over and over for decades and never stopped to think about how they got there. Fascinating connections to history really are all around us.

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