The Schech Mill is located in Beaver Creek Valley State Park

Beaver Creek Valley State Park

Beaver Creek Valley State Park is a state park of Minnesota, USA, featuring a steep, narrow valley carved by East Beaver Creek. This spring-fed stream is a fishing destination for its native brown trout. The heavily forested valley, up to deep in places, is a hidden natural oasis amidst the...

 in the U.S. state

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 of Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 in the Driftless Area—an area in the American Midwest noted for its deeply carved river valleys. It is one of three watermill

Watermill

A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...

s in Minnesota still operating solely with water power and the only one to have its original millstone

Millstone

Millstones or mill stones are used in windmills and watermills, including tide mills, for grinding wheat or other grains.The type of stone most suitable for making millstones is a siliceous rock called burrstone , an open-textured, porous but tough, fine-grained sandstone, or a silicified,...

. Built by John Blinn in 1876, it was purchased by a Minneapolis miller, Michael Schech who had emigrated from Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. The mill produced cornmeal, rye buckwheat, wheat flour, graham flour, and whole wheat cereal, which was sold in Caledonia

Caledonia, Minnesota

As of the census of 2000, there were 2,965 people, 1,223 households, and 754 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,037.1 people per square mile . There were 1,286 housing units at an average density of 449.8 per square mile...

 and Houston, Minnesota

Houston, Minnesota

Houston is a city in Houston County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 979 at the 2010 census.-History:The community was named after Sam Houston, first president of the Republic of Texas....

. In 1922 a concrete dam was built to replace the original wooden one.

Private tours can be arranged most summer weekends which include an authentic flour grinding demonstration.