Carlisle's Early Industry

The first industry in the area was the Parmelee Lumber and Flour Mill which was built in 1843 at the foot of Watts Hill on the Middle River just east of Carlisle. This mill operated into the 1870s and provided lumber and shingles for the original buildings at Fort Des Moines. The Keeney Hoover mill was established near the original highway ford on the North River in the 1840s. The Carlisle Grist Mill, which later became the Nicholson Flouring Mill, was established in 1856 just east of downtown. The Nicholson Mill burned to the ground in the great fire of 1888. In the 1950s the Heartland Coop grain elevator and the General Mills flour mill and packaged foods plant were established at Avon and later annexed into Carlisle.