This point shows a three-story brick gristmill on Lehi's east side, famous as the dance-scene set in Footloose and still milling flour today.
Last reviewed 4 October 2026 · A three-minute read · 1849–2011
The short answer
Legends Boxing in Lehi, Utah occupies the historic Lehi Roller Mills building, a three-story brick gristmill built in 1905 that produced its first flour in April 1906, became the film set for Footloose's dance scene in 1984, joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, and still mills flour today.
A family run business in Lehi, Utah We saw this from the vantage point of our favorite Scottish-American restaurant - McDonalds. Passing through on the way to Canyonlands National Park. gc 040 — 2010 · brewbooks from near Seattle, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0
1905 to 1910
Farmers built a brick mill beside the railroad spur
Lehi Roller Mills is a flour mill in Lehi, Utah, and it is still running today. Farmers in the valley once had to haul their wheat to American Fork Canyon, or further, to Salt Lake County, just to get it ground. Samuel Mulliner fixed that in 1858, building the first gristmill in Lehi. But by the 1890s that mill had passed through two owners and the farmers needed something new. In 1905, local growers and businessmen formed the Lehi Mill and Elevator Company, each one putting up $20,000, and built a brick mill right where the railroad spur served the nearby sugar factory. That choice mattered. Grain and flour could move by rail straight from the mill's door.
The first sack of flour came off the line on April 2, 1906. Demand outran the mill almost immediately. Within a month, workers were adding on to the building, and by summer a 10,000-bushel grain elevator stood beside it. In 1907, the company renamed itself Lehi Roller Mills.
In 1910, a farmer named George G. Robinson bought the mill from the co-op, and milling ran in his family. His ancestors had worked mills in England back to the 1600s, and his father had moved west from Vermont just to build mills in Utah's young farm country. Robinson poured money into the place, adding a 43,000-bushel elevator and four concrete silos. On their sides he painted the Turkey Red and Peacock flour logos that still mark the building today.
1936 to 1980
The mill began supplying the first Kentucky Fried Chicken
George G. Robinson died in 1936, and his sons Sherman D. And Raymond Robinson took over the mill. During World War II, the mill sold its entire flour output straight to the government for the war effort. In 1952, the mill began supplying flour and cornbread mix to the first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Salt Lake City. That relationship still supplies KFC franchises across the Western United States. Sherman D. Robinson died in 1980, and his son, R. Sherman Robinson, known as Robbie, took charge. He was the third generation of Robinsons to run the place.
1984
Footloose filmed its climactic dance inside the mill
In 1984, Footloose came to Lehi to film. At the time, the mill stood alone, surrounded by vacant farmland. Fast food restaurants and shopping centers would fill that farmland decades later, but in 1984 the mill was the only landmark around. The production used the building as the workplace of Ren McCormack, played by Kevin Bacon, and staged its climactic dance scene inside. Bacon worked at the mill himself to prepare for the role.
1994 to now
The mill joined the National Register and kept milling
A decade after the film, in 1994, the mill was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The building still carries the Turkey Red and Peacock logos painted onto its silos generations earlier, along with some of its original machinery and signage.
The Robinson family's hold on the mill ended after the 2006 recession hit their finances hard. In 2012, they sold it to KEB Enterprises, a firm tied to businessman Ken Brailsford. Brailsford bought the mill out of bankruptcy in 2013, put in new machinery, and kept Robbie Robinson on as general manager. In 2018, the business was rebranded as Lehi Mills, though the milling itself carried on unchanged. Robbie Robinson, the last of the family to run the place day to day, died in May 2021.
The ground under the mill has its own separate paper trail. County records show a parcel just north of the historic mill, created in 1994 and carrying a building put up in 1993, a small commercial lot platted as part of subdivision 6326. A private buyer sold that lot to a private buyer in July 1993. The owners held it until 2011, when he sold it to Barton Investment LLC, which still holds title today. In 2017, the Utah Department of Transportation quitclaimed a strip of adjoining land to Lehi City, a routine transfer tied to road work along the street. None of this touches the mill building itself. It is the story of the small commercial parcel beside it, platted and built up while the old brick mill kept grinding flour next door.
Lehi Mills still runs today, producing roughly 100,000 pounds of flour a day. Its flour reaches grocery shelves at Kroger, Smith's, and Macey's stores across the Wasatch Front. The three-story brick building from 1905 still stands on the site, its grain elevators and painted logos intact, still doing the same work it was built for over a century ago.
The brick mill still grinds flour today, its old Turkey Red and Peacock logos faded but visible on the silos.
Read the ground you are standing on
Every person, building and event in this story opens into its own dig in the app — and Strata will dig the ground under your feet instead, wherever that is, in about a minute, with every source shown.
Several early-1900s homes, including the Thomas and Mary Webb House and the Christian and Sarah Knudsen House, are National Register listings within about a kilometer.
Battle Creek Canyon, Pleasant Grove, about 2.4 km away
On March 5, 1849, 35 militiamen under Colonel John Scott, ordered by Brigham Young, attacked Timpanogos Ute people hiding in Battle Creek Canyon, killing four.
American Fork, within a few hundred meters of this spot
After the 1849 killings at Battle Creek, General Daniel H. Wells ordered American Fork settlers to build a twelve-foot wood-and-earthen wall around the town for protection.
Between February 8 and 17, 1850, Mormon militia ordered by Brigham Young attacked Timpanogos Ute people camped near Fort Utah in Provo, following the killing of a Ute man known as Old Bishop.
Founded by the Lehi Mill and Elevator Company after farmers lost access to their old gristmill, the brick building went up in 1905 and produced its first sack of flour in April 1906.
In 1910, George G. Robinson, from an English milling family, bought the co-op mill and built concrete silos painted with the Turkey Red and Peacock flour logos still visible today.
In 1952, Lehi Roller Mills started selling flour for coating chicken and cornbread mix to the first KFC restaurant in Salt Lake City, a supply relationship that continued for decades.
In 1984, the mill became the set for Kevin Bacon's workplace and the rebellious teen dance in Footloose, when the surrounding land was still vacant farmland.
The building housed Lehi Roller Mills, a flour mill built in 1905 by the Lehi Mill and Elevator Company, which produced its first sack of flour in April 1906 and continued milling flour for over a century.
What happened at the mill during the filming of Footloose?
In 1984, the mill became the set for Kevin Bacon's workplace as Ren McCormack and hosted the film's climactic dance scene, at a time when the surrounding land was still vacant farmland.
Why was the mill built at this particular spot in Lehi?
The site was chosen because a railroad spur serving the nearby sugar factory ran right past it, letting grain and flour move by rail directly from the mill's door.
Is the Lehi Roller Mills building historic?
Yes, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, a decade after its appearance in Footloose, and still carries its original Turkey Red and Peacock flour logos and some original machinery.
Who ran the mill after its founding?
George G. Robinson bought the mill from the co-op in 1910 and modernized it, and his descendants, including Sherman D., Raymond, and R. Sherman 'Robbie' Robinson, ran it across three generations until the family sold it following the 2006 recession.
