Show i Flo Mi Prospers Prosper WR Montezuma Valley Corf Cortez z One of or Montezuma Valleys Valley's most mos abundant crops Is solely responsIble responsible Ible for Cor the steady growth of oC one of the principal industries In Cor Cor- From the fertile fields o othe or of the Valley VaHey comes grain primarily wheat to the Wark Milling Co Grains particularly particular y wheat mus must be milled processed milled processed Into quickly usable form Corm such as flour flour and and Inthe Inthe in inthe the Wark Milling Co of oC Cortez the Montezuma Valley VaHey possesses the second largest Independent flour mill In the state of oC Colorado end and one of the largest and mos most modern in the west With a capacity of 1000 bushels a day the Wark mill last year processed n a whopping bushels of ripe golden Montezuma Valley grain And to illustrate the vastly Increasing Increasing increasing In- In In in- creasing growth of the milling industry Industry industry in In- in the valley this figure represents between 35 33 to 40 percent percent percent per per- cent more production than in 1953 We have been growing steadily year after aeter year Tom Wark sec sea treasurer and general manager manager manager man man- ager of the company says and we think well we'll keep growing with the community and the area Besides milling flour the mill will also docs does custom grinding and feed mixing for the hundreds of farmers and stockmen in the broad and lovely Montezuma Val Val- ley It also mills all other small mall trains grains such as corn com and barley which are grown in varying quantities quantities quantities quan quan- In the region I Storage capacity of the huge I anew lIew mill at No Market St. St In tn Cortez totals bushels and during the hel height ht of the grain barvest harvest har bar vest est in the valley vaHey the mills mill's nine work 24 hours a li day three to a ft shift shirt to handle th the heavy demand for Cor its facilities Much of the hundreds of thouSands thousands thourl- thourl ands of bushels of wheat brought brough into th the mill h by western Colorado wheat growers Is Js processed int Into several brands of oC flour which ar are sold throughout the west under unde brand names of the Wark mill Locally the Wark mill milt markets market marketan an excellent excellent hard wheat famil family type flour under the brand name of Valley Queen available In nearly every retail food lood store ii in inthe the area Products of or the Cortez mill are shipped to other parts of Colorado to Utah Arizona and New Mexico i and sometimes as far lar away as California A good portion of the production goes to the Ute Uto and Navajo Indians on on reservations near Cortez and to Indian trading posts where where-It it is baked into bread The year old Tom Wark a atall atall atall tall b bespectacled spectacled young man with an engaging smile points out that tha some 95 percent of the mills mill's production goes out of the state of Colorado and in turn out of state sales result in a large amoun amount of money being returned to Cortez Cortez Cor Cor- for channeling into the local loca economy The Wark mill mUl Is the only one of its kind in the Four Corners area the nearest outside mill being being be be- ing a smaller operation In B Bayfield 15 miles east of Durango The present mill is a completely modern mill in every respect with the latest type of milling equipment equipment equip equip- ment new buildings and date up-to-date milling procedures The modern mill Is the happy nappy result of a disaster On the night of Dec 28 23 1949 a raging fire leveled the the- original Wark mill destroying all the equipment a considerable considerable con can quantity of stored grain and feeds The estimated loss was The president W. W C. C Wark vice president T. T W. W Wark and young Tom within Tom within eight months had rebuilt the mill mm on the site of the destroyed structure The new mill was completed in time to receive the late summer and fall harvst Since then it has been operating steadily The W. W. W C. C and T. T W. W W.- W. first moved to the Montezuma Valey Valley Val Val- ley ey in 1910 Tom was born in 1921 at Cortez and has lived in the community all of his life In 1926 the two elder decided they wanted to go into the milling business as Tom explains explains explains ex ex- plains it now and so they started started started start start- ed the mill although they didn't know anything about it From the first the mill which mill which filled a aneed aneed need in the Valley Valley prospered u It weathered competition r from r m another another an an an- other but smaller mill at Cortez went through the depression era and World War I II 11 without serious trouble until the fire in fn 1949 Since the fire the mill mm has grown steadily and the are confident confident dent it will continue to grow If the Montezuma Valley has hasa a future Tom Wark explains then our mill mm has a future too And were we're sure the Valley has hasa a brilliant future |