Flour Mills and Creamery
;)
The main activity of settlers when they arrived in the Peace River country was agriculture. They harvested crops and kept livestock. It was a natural that they processed their own food including milling their own flour, rolling oats, separating cream, and producing butter and cheese.
The Grande Prairie Creamery Company opened in 1916 as the agricultural production of the region increased. By the 1920s, the Valhalla Co-operated Creamery Association Ltd. in Valhalla was demanding increased storage space for production from the railroad; they received a boxcar.
A Co-operative Creamery opened in the early 1920s at the Riley Crossing on Pouce Coupe River.
Grande Prairie also had the Ploughman and Atkinson flour mill identified in the 1920 Grande Prairie Board of Trade publication, Grande Prairie and the Peace River District.
In 1920, a flour mill was moved from Grande Prairie to Pouce Coupe and was operated by Mr. Hanna, and a few years later the demand for milling brought the establishment of a mill at Dawson Creek.
;)
In another example, J.L. Warren opened the Sexsmith Flour Mill in 1922. He provided milling for farmers who wanted to mill their own wheat and often traded four for firewood and cattle. By the 1930s, he had 40 head of cattle and so much firewood he could not see out of his house.
Through the years of the Great Depression, for those who lived in the Peace River country and those who were a part of the new wave of settlement, the trend to be self-reliant continued. There were many stories of barter for goods and services as there was little money in these years.
The feeling of independence and self-reliance continues in the Peace River country today, as many still cut their own lumber or purchase what they need from local producers.