Lonesome Stone Milling Brings Grains From The Driftless Region To Milwaukee

Out in the town of Lone Rock, Wis., population 888, Gilbert Williams of Lonesome Stone Milling has been hard at work with farmers of Wisconsin’s Driftless region to obtain grains such as wheat and rye for milling into all-purpose flours, pancake mixes, hot cereal and more for retail and wholesale markets. His regular customers include Outpost Natural Foods, which uses Lonesome Stone Milling’s all-purpose flour in their bakery, and sells the flour in the bulk food bins.

A native of Maryland, Williams has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a master’s in agronomy. He worked for the United States Department of Agriculture and later moved to Wisconsin to work in the pesticide department at Hazelton Laboratories (now Covance). He’s since had a number of environment-related jobs.

When Williams and his wife moved to Sauk County in 2000, he held quality control positions at Cedar Grove Cheese and Richland Hills apple orchard. Those experiences helped him learn the ins and outs of operating a food business. While working as a gardener, Williams met Gary Zimmer, who was interested in purchasing the soon-to-close Lone Rock Milling seed mill. Williams and Zimmer went in on the business and changed the name to Lonesome Stone Milling—Lonesome Stone being the humorous nickname for Lone Rock, Williams said. 

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