Painter-Bernatz Mill

Painter-Bernatz Mill. Heritage Park, Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. , Overview , Northeast Iowa was home to many different Native American groups that utilized the natural resources of this area for thousands of years. After Native Americans were forced out of the region by the U.S. government, European settlers like William Painter moved into the area. Painter built this mill around 1850 and used it to grind grain. It operated with water power until 1947, and by diesel power until 1964.

. A mill race brought water from the Upper Iowa River to the mill. , . 1994.100.001 , Gift of the Carlson Family

, The United States government was actively removing Native Americans from this region when European settlers first arrived here. Members of the Ho-Chunk tribe (called the Winnebago by the U.S. government) were forced to live in this valley for 20 years after being driven off their ancestral lands in Wisconsin in the 1830s. In 1848, the Ho-Chunk were relocated to a reservation in Minnesota and later forced into the Dakota Territory where many starved and froze. , Many Native Americans found the concept of owning land absurd, which the U.S. government used to its advantage when entering into treaties with Native leaders. During negotiations about land in northeast Iowa, Winnebago Chief Waukon Haga said, “We do not call it ours , for we did not make it nor could we make it so pretty and fair a land. The Great Spirit made it, and we cannot sell it. We have never sold any country, but have given up our homes to our Great Father to make room for his white children.” (Waukon Haga speech at July 17, 1843 treaty session, National Archives, 234:862.) , Even after the removals, the Ho-Chunk people faced the possibility of having their children forcibly taken to boarding schools in an attempt to have their culture erased by the U.S. government , a practice that continued into the 1970s. In 1887, the federal government passed the Dawes Act, breaking up communal lands on reservations into individual allotments for tribe members and sold “excess land” to white settlers. Many reservations still bear the scars of the Dawes Act on their maps. Tribal sovereignty and the rights of tribal members are still living issues for the Ho-Chunk people and many other tribes. Today, the Ho-Chunk people live all over the world, but their official reservations are divided between Wisconsin and Nebraska. , The William Painter and William Day families were the first settlers of European descent to arrive in the area in 1849 by way of Wisconsin and Virginia, respectively. Painter claimed the western portion of what would become Decorah, and Day took the eastern portion. Settlers from Norway began arriving in large numbers by 1850. , When William Painter arrived in 1849, he was the first of many business people who used the Upper Iowa River to power their mills and factories. As many as 40 mills were established throughout the county by the early settlers. Most of these would have been smaller mills for grinding grain, like the Norsvin Mill here in Heritage Park. Painter's mill is a classic example of a mill , not just a grist mill, but a mill that is a factory. The building is designed to use the mill's power to produce goods as quickly and efficiently as possible. , The Upper Iowa River is now diverted and contained by a levee system to the north. This plat map of Decorah from 1886 shows that the Upper Iowa River originally made a hairpin bend around this site. Water to power the mill's turbine was diverted from the river west of the mill and into a mill race, which took the water directly to the mill and then back out into the river to the east of the building. Later owners of the mill expanded the building several times and ground flour and animal feed by water power until 1947, and by diesel power until 1964. Today, the Upper Iowa River is enjoyed for its beauty and recreational uses.