Cairnspring Mills Opens Blue Mountain Mill on Tribal Land in Pendleton, Oregon

PENDLETON, Ore. — Cairnspring Mills celebrated the opening of Blue Mountain Mill, a stone mill built to bring regional grain and craft flour to bakers and food brands nationwide. The mill is the company’s biggest step yet toward rebuilding local food systems, letting Cairnspring buy far more grain directly from Pacific Northwest farmers at prices above the commodity market. 

Cairnspring built the mill in partnership with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), which leased the site to the company for 50 years and invested $5 million in Cairnspring, the Tribes’ first equity stake in a private company. The mill sits at Coyote Business Park, on tribal land at the base of the Blue Mountains.

“Flour has been treated as a commodity for so long that it’s easy to forget how much the grain, healthy soil, the farmer and the milling process matter,” said Kevin Morse, co-founder and CEO of Cairnspring Mills. “We’ve spent a decade building direct relationships with growers and making premium stone-milled flour that bakers choose for its flavor and performance. Blue Mountain Mill is an example of what I call the remarkable middle infrastructure we’ve been working toward: a human-scale mill and model that serves real markets, supports farmers and keeps value in the community where the grain is grown and processed.”

The 27,000-square-foot mill will begin commercial production in November. Once running at full speed, it will raise Cairnspring’s annual milling capacity from about 8 million pounds to more than 115 million pounds, producing Cairnspring flour and milling for regional and national customers that sell flour under their own labels. Cairnspring will continue buying grain directly from farmers committed to soil health on regional farms and, at full capacity, will source wheat from approximately 60,000 acres. The added volume will generate more than $22 million a year for farmers and create more than 22 local living-wage jobs.

Blue Mountain pairs traditional stone milling with modern blending and quality controls, and is designed for high-volume hard red wheat shipped by the truckload. This frees the original mill in Burlington, Washington, which began a decade ago through a public-private partnership with the Port of Skagit, to focus on unique grain varieties for bakers seeking specialty flours and to serve as Cairnspring’s center for innovation. Together, the two mills give Cairnspring the flexibility to serve a wider range of customers while maintaining the quality that built its name.

“We were one of Cairnspring’s early customers, and ever since the Skagit mill came online, I’ve wanted to fill one of our silos with their flour,” said Mel Darbyshire, head baker at Grand Central Bakery. “We buy 5 million to 6 million pounds of flour a year, all of it grown and milled in the Pacific Northwest, so local sourcing at that volume matters to us and with Blue Mountain, that dream could finally happen.”

Blue Mountain was made possible by a first-of-its-kind coalition of public and private partners, including Steward, Native American Bank, Mission Driven Finance, eight Native community development financial institutions, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the State of Oregon and mission-aligned and community investors. The financing also drew on New Markets Tax Credits and a substantial EB-5 investment, one of the first uses of the federal program for a food processing business, created to bring jobs to rural communities.

“Wheat is king in Umatilla County, but for generations most of its value has left with the grain,” said Bill Tovey, director of the CTUIR Department of Economic and Community Development. “This mill changes that. It brings value-added agriculture home, creates local jobs and gives the Tribes ownership in a growing company that can benefit our people and our neighbors for decades to come.”

Cairnspring is working to make regenerative farming a measurable part of the region’s grain supply. Earlier this year, it became the first flour company to earn The Climate Label, a certification that requires companies to measure emissions across all scopes, plan reductions, and invest in a Climate Transition Budget. Cairnspring is also the first flour company to become Certified Regenerative by A Greener World (AGW), a nonprofit certifier whose standard gives farmers a way to measure where they stand and improve over time. Growers in Cairnspring’s network have enrolled more than 44,000 acres in AGW certification, with more than 100,000 projected by the end of 2027. The company aims to ultimately have all conventionally grown grain in its supply certified regenerative.

In partnership with Cairnspring, Steward designed the capital stack, assisted with site selection,  mobilized major development financing, and assembled a variety of other capital partners and economic incentives to fund the whole project.

“Our partnership with Cairnspring Mills is proof that values-aligned capital and creative financing can support the expansion of regenerative agriculture at scale,” said Dan Miller, Founder & CEO, Steward. “Kevin and his team run a disciplined operation that produces an exemplary product, and when they reached maximum capacity at their Skagit mill a few years ago, our team supported a partnership with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation so that Blue Mountain Mill could be built on tribal land. We are thrilled that Blue Mountain Mill is opening on schedule and creating a new premium market for traceable, domestic grain.” 

Blue Mountain is the second mill in Cairnspring’s network, with future sites under consideration in Maryland and Colorado.

About Cairnspring Mills

Cairnspring Mills is helping to pioneer the craft flour movement with a mission to rebuild food systems, support farmers and nourish communities with clean, healthy, flavorful grains and flour. Founded in Washington’s Skagit Valley in 2016, the company partners directly with Pacific Northwest growers who use regenerative practices that restore soil health and long-term farm viability. Every lot of grain is identity-preserved and stone-milled to intentionally incorporate the bran and germ, resulting in flour that is naturally nutritious and alive with flavor. By proving flour can be full of flavor and economically resilient, Cairnspring offers a new model for 21st-century food production—one that regionalizes supply chains, restores ecosystems, contributes to community resilience, and shares value more equitably across farmers, bakers, and communities. With the opening of Blue Mountain Mill in Pendleton, Oregon, the company now operates two mills in the Pacific Northwest.