In 1861, the Hudson's Bay Company established a trading post in the Similkameen valley. This post was moved to Keremeos Creek in 1863, where it stayed until its close in 1871. One year later Barrington Price came to the area to set up a cattle ranch. Recognizing the Similkameen Valley had the agricultural potential to support a flour mill, Barrington Price put his thoughts into action.

Barrington Price recognized that land near the old Hudson's Bay Company site would be an ideal location for a grist mill. With this in mind Price "took over the land of the abandoned Similkameen Post of the Hudson's Bay Company in addition to his homestead property." (Cuyler Page. The Grist Mill (Keremeos, B.C.: Heritage Interpretation Services, 1995) 2.) In 1877, Barrington Price opened a Grist Mill at Keremeos.

This mill would provide a closer source of flour for residents of the Similkameen Valley, who previously had to travel 270 kilometers by foot or horseback to Fort Colville, Washington. Agricultural development was encouraged with the building of the mill. Residents of the Similkameen valley soon realized the climate and weather in the Similkameen valley provided excellent growing conditions for a variety of crops.

Like computers now, Grist Mill technology at the time was improving and changing at a fast pace. Only the best technology and machines were used at Barrington Price's Grist Mill. He spared no cost and imported machines from all over the world to run his mill. The cost of these changes eventually priced Barrington out of the Grist Mill business. (Harold Kalman. A History of Canadian Architecture (Toronto: Oxford University Press) 236.)