Grist Mill Bridge, Dam and Mill Site, Historic mill complex in Duplain Township, United States

The Grist Mill Bridge, Dam and Mill Site consists of three structures along Upton Road on the Maple River, half a mile west of Elsie. The Upton Road Bridge is a 160-foot steel Parker truss with a plank deck; the dam is 150 feet long and 12 to 15 feet high; the mill site shows L-shaped fieldstone foundations up to 15 feet tall.

Robert E. Craven built a sawmill here around 1845; it ran for nearly 20 years. In 1865 Kellogg Bros. & Johnson bought the site from Craven's estate, replaced the sawmill with a larger grist and flour mill, and put up a timber dam to power it. The mill passed through several owners and ran until 1950; in 1953 the building reopened as a feed and grain elevator, and it burned in 1969, leaving the foundation walls and millrace seen today.

The mill took its name from Kellogg Bros. & Johnson, the firm that bought the site from Robert E. Craven's estate in 1865. Grain was ground here until 1950; in 1953 the building was remodeled as a feed and grain elevator, and after the 1969 fire only the foundation walls and millrace remain. The Elsie Lions Club helped Duplain Township turn the grounds into a park in 1976.

The park is owned and maintained by Duplain Township; the Elsie Lions Club helped convert the area in 1976. The three structures lie close together on the Maple River: the bridge spans the river about sixty feet west of the dam, and the mill foundation sits on the southern bank roughly 75 feet east of the dam. The Upton Road bridge has been closed to traffic since 1966, when a new Maple River crossing opened on Island Road.

The Upton Road Bridge is one of only three remaining Parker truss bridges in Michigan and the last known surviving metal truss highway bridge built by Detroit Bridge & Iron Works. Its 160-foot pinned steel span, contracted in 1901 for $2,590, rests on concrete abutments and carries a deck of wooden planks, paving blocks and asphalt.