In 1879, after five years of secret planning, Charles Alfred Pillsbury announced to the public that he would build the largest and most advanced mill the world had ever seen. He had traveled to mills all over the world, searching for the best technique for milling flour on a large scale. Despite the convention of the time, Pillsbury decided that he wanted his new mill to be designed by an architect in order to make the building visually appealing. An architect named LeRoy S. Buffington, with the loose advice of several engineers, carried out the design.

Construction started in 1880 and was finished in 1881 under a contractor named George McMullen. The mill was built to put out 5,000 barrels a day when a 500-barrel mill was considered large. It attracted a lot of attention from many people who thought that there was no practical need for a mill to ever exist due to the demand of flour in the day. For some years the mill was not run at its intended capacity. Part of the building was used as a warehouse and for other purposes.

Due to vibrations of milling machines and poor design in 1905 the mill was fortified and certain sections were rebuilt. To this day the walls bow 22 inches on the top. Unlike other similarly large mills in the area, most notably the Washburn A Mill, the Pillsbury A Mill never exploded or caught fire. And as a result, it still contains its original wood frame.

As the years progressed, mill output picked up due to technological advances in the milling industry. However other larger mills were created elsewhere and the sparkle that once surround the great mill left.

The building is a National Historic Landmark and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

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First some background.

I’ve been to Pillsbury on and off for a couple years now. Bringing coharts such as Myth, Squeek, and Nèur@l multiple times.

However with mounting security at Pillsbury this trip log will mark a warning for other explorers to probably retire from exploring the great Pillsbury “A” Mill.

I would HIGHLY recommend you not try to recreate our trip and to stay out.

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Members: ToXiC, Brute, Nèur@l
Photos by: ToXiC w/ Sony Cybershot DSC-H9 8.1
Written by: ToXiC
2009 Trip #1

Me and Nèur@l had been out bar hopping. I decided that since the bars had all closed that we should goto Pillsbury. He had some small objections but I reassured him I knew the building well enough and that a short lived entrance offered a safe entrance. I called Brute and told him this could be his only realistic chance into Pillsbury since he wasn’t a climber. He agreed and we all met in the parkway, being almost dawn we decided to head in.

The entrance being a Helix Staircase, had been blocked for ages, until someone decided to bust it open in some fashion. Taking advantage of this entrance we proceeded upward, walking up and up. Brute actually developed a short lived case of dementia. Then finally we were at the top of the White Silos. The sun was just peaking over the horizon adding to our triumphant return to Pillsbury. I was just finishing a smoke when we all decided to head in and start exploring.

We decided to start exploring the above floors of the silos, since I had previously never been in that area. The sun had just started to hit the area when I suggested to everyone that we head to the top floor and take in the view of Pillsbury from the sign. We headed down the Cross Walk that connected the Silos and the 1st Expansion to the original “A” Mill.

We headed up the stairs that flanked the elevator on all sides until we finally reached the top floor. Heading up the ladder I called back down to Brute asking where he was. He had decided he wasn’t going to head up to the top since he was suffering still from the staircase that had caused dementia for him again.

When I arrived at the top I first saw downtown minneapolis glow in the radiant morning light. It was quite beautiful. Then I noticed Nèur@l wasn’t around anywhere to be seen. I called out to him only to hear a voice come straight down at me. “Oh” I replied, not thinking to look up, Nèur@l had already jumped the gun and went up to the top of the sign to take the view in. I joined him. We talked for a bit about various things until I decided it was light enough to probably come down from the very visible sign. I took a few shots and we headed back down.

As we headed down the ladder I whistled for Brute, who didn’t respond. Knowing he was probably a few floors below us we proceeded to head down while exploring the light flooded rooms taking some nifty shots with my camera. After awhile we ran into Brute and continued our flight down the floors. It was at about the 8th floor that I realized we were hitting our safety net with the security of the building. We went down a couple more floors exploring them cautiously keeping our minds aware of the danger. Brute had went off into another part of the building when I decided that I was going to take a cautious look into the top floor of the original “A” Mill to take a couple of snap shots since I knew going lower would be too risky.

It was too late to stop my body physically before I noticed a camera right in front of me. The horrid little device brightened 8 red LED Motion Sensor lights below the lens in the form of a hideous evil looking smile of doom. It was then that I stopped hoping for a split second I hadn’t activated it fully. It was then that I heard the alarm. I ran calling to my coharts that it was time to bail.

We encountered a small dilemma while leaving, we had got turned around a little bit which took time out from safely escaping into the public. It was then that we decided to head to the top of the Silos and observe carefully what would happen below. About a minute after we had reached the roof we saw a security car patrolling the building. It was then that we decided we would wait it out and see what would happen.

Ten minutes later 2 Squad Cars showed up positioning themselves accordingly to secure the perimeter. We decided being on the rooftop at this point was out of the question. We headed down to the Cross Walks between the buildings and peered out of a couple small eyeball sized holes in the metal siding of the crosswalks. We had been observing their positions for about half an hour when I looked out the north side when my heart began pounding with adrenaline and fear.. a K9 Unit had showed up.

I had never been in this position before. Thinking quick I called Brute and Nèur@l over to see what they thought we should do. We weren’t sure as we were going over it the only thing we could agree on was that we would turn ourselves in before that K9 got anywhere near us. It was then that heard a yelp. We froze. We weren’t sure if it was inside or outside because it had been distant. We carefully listened for ten minutes when a louder bark caught our attention. We ran towards the staircase we had entered up through.

We had two options at this point. We could head down or head up. I decided I was going down the stairway and sit at about the 3rd floor. Brute and Nèur@l followed me down, everyone’s heart pounding, like it was going to burst from their chests like in Alien.

We sat in the darkness, listening, thinking and calming down. It wasn’t until about 20 minutes later that we could hear the dog right above us. Minutes passed like hours. Then everything was quiet. Had the dog lost our trail? Had they given up? We didn’t know.

Then suddenly we heard people coming down the stairwell. We had no time to think, they were jogging down the stairs. We didn’t know if the dog was with them or not. We speedily got up and jogged down the stairs ourselves. I was about to walk outside and give up when I realized there was noone in front of the entrance. I looked behind me seeing the open basement of the silos looming in complete darkness with all its support columns telling me to hide. I walked in and speedily hastened Brute and Nèur@l to follow. We walked in 20 yards a couple rows in and sat down just as bright mag lights flooded the area. We all sat still not daring to breath. Then as if by a miracle, the lights went off and it was silent.

We decided to move further into the musty odor smelling basement. It was a combination smell of dead mice, maggots, bats, birds, rotting grain, mildew, and all kinds of things I cant even think of at this time. We sat for atleast an hour just calming ourselves when we decided someone should take a look. It ended up being me. Stealthily I walked towards the bright light that came in from the doorway. I carefully peaked out and the place was quiet as ever. I called Brute on his cell and told him we’re leaving.

After basically running to get off the property we settled down at Dunn Bros coffee and it wasn’t until then that the three of us, dirty, dusted, horribly smelling, and exhausted burst out laughing so hard from relief. I thought that the cashier might ask us to leave.

So ends my exploration of the Pillsbury “A” Mill.

Lets the good times ‘roll… Pillsbury, thanks for all the memories!

Sources
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillsbury_A_Mill

2008 Photos