The Swedenburg Grist Mill, located in Hastings, Nebraska, is a historically significant gristmill that was built in the late 19th century. Constructed between 1882 and 1884, it was one of the first gristmills in the region, catering to the area's rapidly growing agricultural needs. Its strategic location near the Little Blue River provided the necessary waterpower to operate the mill. The Swedenburg Grist Mill, named after its original owner, Gustaf Swedenburg, was instrumental in producing flour, cornmeal, and other grains essential for the local population.

One of the unique features of the Swedenburg Grist Mill is its architecture. The three-story building was constructed using local materials, such as limestone and wood, and showcases an imposing facade. Visitors can still see remnants of the original structural systems, including its wooden frame, designed to withstand the stresses of grinding grains into fine powders. Due to the engineering prowess of its constructors, the Swedenburg Grist Mill served as a prime example of period gristmill architecture.

Its milling process followed standard procedures of the era, which included an initial cleaning and sorting process, followed by the grinding operations using the stone-grinding wheels. Four stones – two French buhrs for fine flour, one set of a Gray-Winch stone for custom grinding, and another granite stone for corneal – powered the milling operations, drawing on its 20-horsepower, non-Hydraulic system engine that utilized pressurized air and the water power of Little Blue River to facilitate grinding. Interestingly, many prominent agricultural names in the region supplied the mill, many still owning the farmland ancestral.

An influential and local legend connected with the gristmill area relates the history of prominent stock manipulator Lorenzo Crounse, specifically describing during the 1893 Farmers' and Laborers Union protests over the rates of milling and agriculture due to farm crisis after prolonged bank closures resulting in ungrants being withdrawn. For numerous years up until the mid-twentieth century, this infamous grist mill was forced to grind grain "at cost" due to laborer pressures. During a financial downturn in 1974, its 92 years operational career ceased.

Hastings Historical Society rescued the grist mill from oblivion in 1977 and placed it in the historic Swedenburg Grist Mill Historic District. Founded through preservation goals spearheaded by the 'Friends of Swedenburg Grist Mill Group,' museum-like transformations ensued at great expenses to preserve what had been standing the longest. An annual Hastings Museum hosted educational exhibitions on related local farmer historical memorabilia.

Today visitors can partake in self-guided tours where history dating more than a century back gets to be imagined – despite the exhibits’ re-enactments not following traditional daily operational pattern arrangements and a grist mill which sees an absence of functional production and manufacturing re-enactment periods.

To preserve a once vibrant community, local residents along with Swedenburg family heirs encourage attendance yearly by hosting a Swedenburg Day every summer month, where guests discover an intricate setup exhibiting one-time crafts including baking processes like cooking wheat sour dough bread on steel oven exterior – illustrating bygone artisan baker historical narratives.

In remembering Swedenburg past historical experiences they enable a fine, unique piece of a community gristmill legacy.