Description of Historic Place

The T.A. Burrows Mill Site, located in park-like surroundings next to the Valley River at the western edge of Grandview, contains remnants of a lumber mill that operated from ca. 1903 to 1918 drawing on the rich timber resources of western Manitoba. The municipal designation applies to the parcel of land, foundation remains and other surface and subsurface resources associated with the industrial plant.

Heritage Value

The T.A. Burrows Mill Site preserves physical remnants of one of Manitoba's largest early sawmills and also recognizes a leading pioneer of the valuable lumber industry, Theodore Arthur Burrows, whose ventures were instrumental in promoting the development of Grandview and other communities in the province's Parkland region. Like other entrepreneurs of his era, Burrows wore multiple hats as a surveyor, railway land commissioner, colonization road builder, politician, and eventually lieutenant-governor of Manitoba (1926-29). He used his knowledge of local resources to acquire timber-cutting rights and establish sawmills in various areas of the province beginning in the late 1870s. He also expanded vertically into the retail side of the building products business. His Grandview mill was especially well situated between the forested areas of the Duck and Riding mountains, next to the Valley River, used to transport raw logs, and to a Canadian Northern Railway line that took the plant's output to market. The sprawling site held saw-, planing and lath mills, drying and storage yards, workers' housing, barns and many other ancillary facilities. At its peak, the mill and its related logging activities employed up to 1,000 hands and processed in one season some 13.2 million board feet of wood. The plant's economic viability eroded in the mid-1910s, however, prompting Burrows to move north to the Porcupine Forest Reserve and Bowsman, where he built a larger-capacity mill. The Grandview site, and the concrete foundations and other mill remains protected therein, are rare publicly accessible vestiges of an important phase in Manitoba's industrial heritage.

Source: Town of Grandview By-law No. 5-2007, April 10, 2007

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the T.A. Burrows Mill Site include:
- its location on the south side of the Valley River in proximity to a Canadian National (formerly Northern) Railway line and to Burrows and Mill streets in Grandview
- the relationship of the site's foundation remnants to the river and their exposure within a setting of groomed and natural vegetative growth

Key physical elements that define the site's heritage character include:
- the in situ foundation remains, of concrete, iron and brick, representing the large sawmill and chimney structures that existed at the north end of the plant site
- the surface and subsurface detritus scattered along the Valley River relating to the plant and log-sliding operations, including brick and iron remnants, etc.

Key elements that define the site's commemorative character include:
- public access and interpretive plaque near the foundation remains
- sawmill artifacts and information on the Burrows Lumber Co. in the nearby Watson Crossley Community Museum