The Mill Keeper

THE HISTORYInspired by Napa's early pioneers, The Mill Keeper honors the determined men and women who kneaded the first bread and pressed the first wine. Their efforts, and those of their spouses and descendants, laid the foundation for Napa's wine industry generations ago. THE FIRST MILLGeorge Calvert Yount, the first Euro-American Napa settler, wandered westward across the continent after the War of 1812 and in exchange for services rendered, received a Napa land grant of approximately 11,000 acres from the Mexican governor, General Mariano Vallejo of Alta, California in 1834. Yount granted his mill keeper a small parcel of land bound by Napa River and Conn Creek, upon which the owners of Gamble Family Vineyards now reside. Though no remains of Yount's original mill exist today, his memory has honored many folds, including a Napa Valley town in his name. In the years to follow, Yount gifted his granddaughters and their husbands land and later established the village of Rutherford. Their vineyards produced the first quality grapes in the area and paved the to road to build the renowned Inglenook Winery. THE REMAINING MILLIn 1841, Dr. Edwin Bale, an Englishman and chief military surgeon to General Vallejo, also received a grant of land between what is now St. Helena and Calistoga. An untimely death left his widow (and General Vallejo's niece) Maria Soberanes to become the new mill keeper. She successfully operated the mill and became the wealthiest person in the region. Decades later, Charles Krug married Bale's daughter, Carolina, whose 540 acre dowry became the site of Charles Krug winery in 1861, producing the first sophisticated Napa Valley wines. Nowadays, Bale's restored 36-foot-tall mill is a state park managed by Napa County and is just one of two active water-powered mills west of the Mississippi River.

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