Old Mill Days

October 12 & 13, 2024 – 10:00am – 2:00pm

Join the festivities as we celebrate harvest season in the Napa Valley at this annual family-friendly event! Come visit the Bale Grist Mill, enjoy a day of living history, food, music, and fun.

Get a glimpse into history as we recreate the scene of when the Bale Grist Mill was first in operation in 1846. At this time the Napa Valley looked much different, instead of grapes the crop of choice was wheat. The mill was a lively place to be during the harvest season as farmers brought their wheat harvest to the local grist mill to be made into flour.

Old Mill Days is a family-friendly living history event at the Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park. Visitors can participate in traditional farm chores, such as woodworking, corn husking & shelling, wheat threshing, butter making, pressing apples for cider, hand sewing, and rope making. Children can enjoy making corn husk dolls, planing wood slabs, hand washing clothes on washboards, sifting flour, and playing traditional games.

Many artisans will be present who enjoy sharing their craft with others. Learn more about the process of old fashioned textile making like lacemaking, wheat weaving, and spinning. Musicians play old-time music throughout the day and millers provide tours and demonstrations of the water-powered grist mill that is still in operation today.

Activities include: Pressing apples for cider, woodworking, corn husk doll making, hand sewing, flour sifting, rope making, traditional games, Civil War display – with “drill” practices, and more!

Demonstrations and tours: Milling demos and tours of the historic mill, spinning, lacemaking, loom weaving, knitting.

We’ll have chili and cornbread available for your enjoyment!

Admission is $5 (2 & under free)

Download the kids coloring page here.

We’re looking for volunteers to help with Old Mill Days & Pioneer Christmas! If you’d like to meet some great fellow volunteers and help us host these family-friendly events, we’d love to have your help! Fill out our volunteer form here or email us at info@ncrposd.org for more details.