Benson Grist Mill Covered Bridge

Benson Grist Mill Covered Bridge is a small decorative span built in 2010 on the grounds of the Benson Grist Mill, a historic pioneer flour mill north of Tooele in Tooele County. The mill itself dates to a much older story: in 1850, LDS Church Apostle Ezra Taft Benson was authorized by Brigham Young to develop a mill site at Twin Springs Creek to serve the area's growing Mormon settlements. A sawmill began operating in 1851, and in 1854 skilled pioneer artisans known as the Lee brothers were hired to construct the flour mill itself. By 1860, the "E.T. Benson Flour Mill" was producing 1,200 barrels of flour, 72,000 pounds of bran, and 56,000 pounds of corn meal annually with a single employee and one run of millstones.

The mill operated in some form until the 1940s, when it was used for grinding animal feed, then sat abandoned for roughly 40 years before developer Terracor donated the building to Tooele County. A dedicated volunteer restoration committee — Jack Smith, Wayne Shields, Boyd and Ouida Blanthorn, Ray Court, Bob and Marilyn Shields, Douglas Smith, and Maxine Grimm — spent years returning the mill to its current condition. The covered bridge, added in 2010 alongside a covered wagon and old-fashioned windmill, is a purely decorative flourish rather than a working crossing with its own transportation history, but it fits naturally into the pioneer-era atmosphere of a site now used for tours, field trips, weddings, and community gatherings.