View of the historic Bale Grist Mill, located in California’s picturesque Napa Valley. The mill was originally built in 1846 and has been renovated and preserved over the years.
Dr. Edward Turner Bale’s grist mill has seen a lot of changes in its more than 175 years of existence.
Originally constructed in 1846, the mill, which boasts a 36-foot waterwheel (it was originally 20-feet in size but was enlarged a few years after it was built), was designed to grind the wheat, corn, oats, and barley crops of local Napa Valley farmers. They would bring their grains to the mill to be ground and bagged.
Today, visitors to the upper Napa Valley can still explore the mill, which has defied neglect, wildfires, and other threats over the years, and was restored in the 1980s. The Bale Grist Mill is located about six miles northwest of the town of St. Helena on California Highway 29.
The story of the mill is closely aligned with the settling of the Napa Valley region. Home to a thriving Native American population, the valley was first visited by non-native explorers in the early 1820s. In 1836, former mountain man George C. Yount became the area’s first white settler (in present-day Yountville), receiving a land grant from the Mexican government.
At that time, nearly all of California was under the control of Mexico, which had gained its independence from Spain in 1810.
Much of the area now known as the Napa Valley was divided into large rancheros owned by a handful of Mexican landowners, led by General Mariano Vallejo, who was the Commandante General of Alta California (which encompassed nearly all of the state of California).
In 1839, Dr. Edward Bale, an English physician who had arrived in California two years earlier, married Maria Ygnacia Soberanes, niece of General Vallejo. Within a few years, Dr. Bale had become a citizen of Mexico and was granted the land between present-day Rutherford and Calistoga (some 17,962 acres), which he named Rancho Carne Humana. To support such a large ranch, Bale decided to establish the grist mill as well as a sawmill.
In 1848, Bale caught gold fever and left his wife, two sons and four daughters, so that he could seek his fortune in the gold fields of eastern California. Unfortunately, he became sick and died on Oct. 9, 1849.
Bale’s widow, Maria, who was only 27 years old, took it upon herself to support her family. By 1850, she had either sold or lost to squatters the majority of the 17,000-acre land grant and is listed as the owner of 1,500 acres of unimproved land and 50 improved acres.
She was able to retain the grist mill and the sawmill, which she had expanded and enlarged in the early 1850s. The two enterprises allowed her to pay off her late husband’s debts, eventually remarry, and provide for her children.
In 1860, one of Maria Bale’s daughters, Isadora Bruck, sold the sawmill and the grist mill. The latter, under a succession of owners, continued to operate until 1905. Over the years, a later owner, Rev. Theodore Lyman, made additional improvements so that the mill could operate when there wasn’t enough water running in the creek that powered the waterwheel.
Lyman’s family donated the mill to the Native Sons of the Golden West in 1923, which, in 1941, deeded it to the Napa County Historical Society to maintain and preserve. In 1974, the facility and surrounding property became a California State Historic Park.
A major renovation in the mid-1980s got the grist mill up and running again, and in 1988, it milled its first grain in more than seven decades.
Today, the restored mill is one of the most iconic places in the Napa Valley, drawing thousands of visitors who are enchanted by the picturesque setting and the enormous wooden waterwheel.
Adjacent to the mill site is the Bothe-Napa Valley State Park (linked via trails), where visitors can picnic, hike, bike, and enjoy a public swimming pool. Additionally, the park offers private cabins for rent, yurts, tent camping sites, and RV campsites. Both facilities are operated by the Napa Open Space District in partnership with the Napa Valley State Parks Association.
