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A working work in progress By Nick Morgan Updated: Jun 03, 2022 03:03 PM A A Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune Jay O'Neil in the production room with the original grind stone at the Butte Creek Mill in Eagle Point Wednesday. Andy Atkinson / Mail TribuneThe Butte Creek Mill in Eagle Point, seen Wednesday, is slowly moving toward reopening fully. Historic Butte Creek Mill is functional, but needs at least $360,000 in order to reopen 1800s Country Store Organizers behind the Butte Creek Mill restoration say there’s hope that reopening to the public could be only a matter of months, but more realistically it’s a matter of six figures. Butte Creek Mill Foundation Board Chair Jay O’Neil said the nonprofit needs at least $360,000 before they can reopen the 1800s country store — the next significant milestone after six and a half years of fundraising and rebuilding. But reaching the same functionality the historical mill had prior to its destruction in a Christmas Day 2015 fire will require more than double that amount. “We’ll be fully open $800,000 from today,” O’Neil said. “It’s still a work in progress.” It is, however, a functional work in progress. The city of Eagle Point granted the mill a conditional occupancy permit for a milling room, packaging room and basement flour collection room starting late last year, and the Oregon Department of Agriculture has certified those rooms for food production. Since November, volunteers have been milling grain with the mill’s water-powered 1872 millstones. During the last big batch made over three days in late April and early May, volunteers ended up processing about 5,000 pounds of wheat one 25-pound bag at a time. "Right now we’re hand-lifting them (the bags) into the wheat hopper that feeds them into the grinding stones,“ O’Neil said. The fresh flour goes into commercial-grade food buckets that are carried upstairs to be run through a sifter. “Everything’s manual at the moment,“ O’Neil said. ”Thank God for our wonderful, wonderful volunteers.“ “It is an 1800s mill, so I guess manual labor is part of the job.” Eventually, O’Neil fears the old-fashioned novelty and labor will wear on volunteers, so he’d like to see the system become a little more mechanized and automated. His complete $800,000 goal would cover items such as a flour collection system that could carry the freshly ground flour upstairs from a sifter, and a wheat storage system on the second floor that will allow gravity to do more of the work feeding the wheat into the mills. “We won’t have to be lifting bags or lifting buckets forever,” O’Neil said. Their first goal — reachable at about $360,000 — is to get the country store back open to the public so they have a home base to sell their milled wares. The foundation has been selling flour and mixes at Eagle Point events such as Vintage Faire and a Memorial Day porch sale, and 18 recipes — from Cactus Jack’s Cowboy Cookies to Cornbread Mix — are available at buttecreekmill.com . On Wednesday, O’Neil said, the nonprofit plans to discuss a more consistent schedule for porch sales. In the meantime, the nonprofit has no paid employees besides building contractors, and it works to utilize the donations it gets before construction costs can rise even higher. “Every time we get $10-, $20- or $30,000, we do put it to use,” O’Neil said. “We’re hammering away at it every day.” Reach web editor Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @MTwebeditor.