The Beginning
One summer morning in 1852, Fred Graue entered his mill and turned the wheel that opened the sluice gates outside. Water from Salt Creek rushed into the millrace and the wooden waterwheel began to turn for the first time. It would turn the machinery that would grind grain for the next seventy years.
Today, Graue Mill is the only operating waterwheel gristmill in Illinois, and one of only three authenticated Underground Railroad stations in the state.
Location
(York and Spring Roads Oak Brook, Illinois) Visit the Graue Mill and Museum in Oak Brook, Illinois. Just 18 miles from the heart of Chicago, the Mill is on York Road, 1/4 mile north of Ogden Avenue, at the junction of York and Spring Roads.