Among the four recipients sharing more than $1 million awarded through the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs (IDCA) Iowa Great Places program for fiscal year 2023 is the Turkey River Recreational Corridor (TRRC), which plans to use the funds to modernize a historic site in Clayton County.
The TRRC, which was given $328,000 through the Great Places program, will use the award to update the Motor Mill Inn site near Elkader through a project titled “Motor Mill Inn Revival: Accommodating Travelers Past & Present.”
The IDCA made the announcement last week.
“Across Iowa, these projects are connecting Iowans to arts, culture and heritage programming and their local communities’ authentic character,” Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs Director Chris Kramer said. “They represent the quality of life people value today when choosing culturally vibrant places to live, work and raise their families.”
According to the IDCA, the project will result in the “renovation and rehabilitation” of the historic site, as “the project aims to protect the Inn from flooding, return the historic structure to its original state, provide meeting rooms and overnight accommodations for travelers, and house a small visitor center for historic and cultural education purposes.”
The work to renovate the Motor Mill should be finished within a year, as, “the goal is to complete the project by the end of 2023 or in early 2024,” according to the TRRC’s Director Mallory Hanson.
“The Motor Mill Historic Site is an anchor site for us here in the Turkey River Recreational Corridor in Clayton and Fayette Counties,” Hanson added, in further describing the importance of the venue to the local area. “The renovation of the Inn will not only provide new and unique lodging for our Corridor visitors, but will also provide a space for the Motor Mill Foundation and Clayton County Conservation to base their interpretation out of at the Site.”
The Motor Mill site is a natural area centered on a campus featuring a six-story limestone flouring mill, in addition to four other related structures which date back to the 1860s.
According to the location’s website, by the fall of 1869, the mill began operating, though, for various reasons, it closed after only 14 years. It was later purchased in 1903 by a family who used the buildings as part of their farming operation, which continued throughout the next eight decades.
In 1983, however, the Clayton County Conservation Board bought the Motor Mill site, at which point efforts to restore and preserve it began in earnest.
The location, perched on the banks of the Turkey River, is open to the public, though visitors may only go inside the stone mill as part of guided tours, which are provided during the summer season and select weekends in the fall.
Work such as leading the Motor Mill’s restoration, Hanson explained, are reflective of the goals of the TRRC, whose primary mission is to develop and enhance the area’s natural and cultural resources in an effort to strengthen Clayton and Fayette County’s economic growth. “These kinds of projects benefit the Corridor and surrounding communities by increasing the availability of recreational and educational opportunities in the area,” she said, “fostering an increase in tourism and, therefore, economic development.”
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