The Manchester of North America Was Right Here All Along

By Kate Griffith

June 16, 2026

"The Mississippi Valley Textile Museum keeps that story magnificently alive."

There is a building on the banks of the Mississippi River in Almonte that has been standing since 1867 — the year of Confederation — and the stories it holds are as tightly woven as the wool that once moved through its looms. The Mississippi Valley Textile Museum occupies the former annex of the Rosamond Woolen Company, a mill that at its height employed four hundred people and helped earn this…