Ben Logan's old Grain & Feed Mill that has been renovated into Logan Mill Lodge is one of several historic buildings in the little Norwegian village of Westby.

 

It is located at the corner of South Bekkedal Avenue and East Second Street just 1 block East of Main Street.  It is near the down town retail shops and restaurants.  It is 3 blocks south of the Stabbur Visitor Center and 1 block north of the Westby Coop Creamery. This part of the city was the original industrial park because the railroad tracks ran down what is now Bekkedal Avenue and Polly Rude Way, the 2 streets that run beside the property.

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The years 1905 - 1939 this building was home to one of the first co-operatives in the state of Wisconsin, the "Westby Co-operative Seed Exchange". Cancelled checks from the 1920's were found in the attic that show things that farmers sold to the coop.  

 

In 1940 a gentleman named Ben Logan purchased this property, doubled the size of the building, added feed grinding equipment, and renamed the business "Westby Feed and Seed". This was the first  feed mill to serve dairy farmers in rural Westby. Other people have owned the building since Ben Logan, but to this day the building is still fondly remembered and spoken of as "Ben Logan's Mill".

 

Thanks to Westby historian, Eric Leum, who has provided photos that show the history of this property and has written about this property in the "HISTORICALLY YOURS" column for the Westby Times newspaper. . Additionally we are grateful to Donna Bean, one of Ben Logan's grandchildren, for the research she did at the Vernon County Courthouse to verify the sequence of owners of this property. . The significant eras in the history of the building seem to have started in these years...

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1905 - 1910 - 1911 - 1940 - 1962 - 1966 - 1990 - 1999 

(work in progress so not all years are covered in this narrative)