MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



15 



BAY CITY'S SAW 



MILL INDUSTRY 



There has been a wonderful transformation 



in the .-aw mill industry in Bay City in the 



irs, and the men who built up 



that industry and for years were active fac- 



Mi the business and social life of the city 



lany years are gone. Of the saw mill 



men who were, in business here in 1863 the 



unly din- recalled is Albert Miller, who is still 



a resident of Bay City, though no longer 



identified with the lumber industry. Speaking 



is subject the other day .Mr. Miller said 



that he engaged in the lumbering business in 



' ity in 1SG3, that S. G. M. Gates started 



here the same year, and all the rest were no 



longer conspicuous figures here. The greater 



number of them are dead. 



Thomas Cranage was one of the earlier 

 lining a member of the firm of Pitts 

 & Cranage in 1870. Mr. Gates died recently 

 and Albert Miller and Thomas Cranage alone 

 remain. H. M. Bradley and John S. Taylor 

 are still living, the former at Duluth and the 

 latter on the Pacific coast. 



Here is the list uf the saw mills in opera- 

 tion at what now constitutes Bay City in 

 ; hough at that time there were Wenona, 

 Bangor, Salzburg, Portsmouth and Bay City, 

 the latter now covering the entire territory: 



I'.angor Moore & Smith, Taylor & Moul- 

 throp, Franklin Lloyd, Keystone mill and 



ke mill. 



Bay Citj McEwan Bros., S. Pitts & CD. 

 (later Thomas Pitts & Co., and then Pitts & 

 Cranage), James Shearer & Co., Catlin & 

 Jeiinis'in (later Jennison & Rouse), Grant & 

 later Gates & Fay and S. G. M. Gates), 

 \Ym. Peters, II. M. Bradley. A. Miller & Co., 

 N IS. Bradley, J. J. Mc'Cormick and John F. 

 Rust & Co. (later A. Rust & Co.) 



Portsmouth H. A. Braddock, McKinney's 

 mill. 11. I). Braddock and Watrous & South- 

 ; worth. 



Many changes in mill firms were subse- 

 Jquently made and many new mills were built. 



In 1863 the big mill of Sage & McGraw wa> 

 ! erected at \Yenona, and the mill of John Mc- 

 Graw & Co. was built in 1870 at what was 

 [ then known as Portsmouth. In 1865 the mill 

 uf Kddy. Avcry & Eddy was added to the 

 equipment of Bay City, and also the mills of 

 ! John Eraser, Dolsen & Walker and J. Watson, 

 later Watson & O'Brien. 



In 1868 the mills of J. Carrier & Co., Hitch- 

 cock & Dunham. A. C. Rorison, Folsom & 

 Arnold and Smith & Hart were in commis- 

 sion. Watrous Bros, and A. Stevens & Co. 



ated shingle mills in 1864. 



The Huron Salt & Lumber Co. operated a 

 mill at Salzburg in 1870. as did Brooks & 

 Adam>; Stevens & Shailer and Whipple & 

 Parmly. on the middle ground. 



With the exception of the few men noted 

 all have pa.-sed away. All of the saw mill 

 firms at Saginaw that were actively in opera- 

 :hirty-fivc and forty years ago have gone 

 out with the years, and only one mill, a com- 

 paratively new one Bliss & Van Aukcn is 

 now in operation there. And the men who 

 at the front there have also nearly all 

 laid down the burdens of life. A. W. Wright, 

 of the early Saginaw lumbermen, resides 

 at Alma. Joseph A. Whittier. who located in 

 iaw in J85G, still resides there, though 

 he retired from business years ago. Thomas 

 Merrill, past the age of 90, still' resides in 

 Saginaw. T. E. Dorr, formerly a member of 

 the lumber linn of Murphy & Dorr, operating 

 mill at Bay City, still lives in Saginaw. 

 The-e are about the only ones left. 



The lumber business in the valley, which 

 -tarted in 18I!4. moved slowly for some 

 years and did nor become active until early 

 in the fifties. In 1863 the sixty-eight mills 

 manufactured 1 :;:),. ">oo. 000 feet of pine lumber 

 and the output steadily increased thence on 

 until lss;j, the high tide of production being 

 reached that year, when 1.011.274,905 feet of 

 lumber were manufactured. The production 



assumed proportions of magnitude, however, 

 a number of years later, as late as 1893 aggre- 

 gating 7(i^,-n;5.o27 feet. 



Since 1900 there has not been much fluctua- 

 tion, the industry holding its own. Last year 

 the output was ] I4.si7.:>f>0 feet. Next year 

 another saw mill, that of the Richardson Lum- 

 ber Co., now building, will be added to the 

 equipment ot the city. 



The methods of handling lumber have- 

 changed with the iflght of years. The writer 

 recalls the days before the tow barge was 

 evolved when 150 schooners, barks and brigs 

 could be counted either at anchor in 'the Sag- 

 inaw river at a single time or loading at the 

 mill docks. It was the ambition of the lum- 

 berman in those days to cut the timber in 

 the woods, float it down to the mills, manu- 

 facture it. pile it upon the docks and ship it 

 away to lower lake ports by the cargo in the 

 rough. There it was worked up in the fac- 

 tories and the yards. As early as 1868 there 

 was shipped by boat out of the Saginaw river 

 a total of 430,128,000 feet of pine lumber and 

 74,141,105 shingles. The high water mark of 

 lumber shipments by boat was reached in the 

 season of 1882 when 858,344,000 feet went out 

 of the river in a little over eight months. And 

 as late as 1890 the shipments by water ex- 

 ceeded 400,000,000 feet. Last year 3,000,000 

 feet went out, and the tide having changed 

 this way more than 100,000,000 feet came 

 into this river by boat. 



Planing mils, box factories, veneer work, 

 shade roller factories and other woodwork- 

 ing plants have taken the place of many of 

 the saw mills and the lumber is now worked 

 up into commodities and is shipped by rail 

 to customers in car lots all over the country. 

 - E. D. Cowles in Bay City Tribune. 



MONSTER LUMBER PLANT. 



E. C. Hargrave, of Bay City, general man- 

 ager of the Sierra Madre Land & Lumber Co., 

 at Madera, Chihuahua province, Mexico, says 

 that the company is making rapid progress 

 with the big lumber plant destined to be the 

 largest and finest in the world. The buildings 

 for the two big saw mills, each 280 by 60 feet 

 are completed and the machinery is installed 

 in one and partially in the other. The two 

 rough lumber sheds, each capable of holding 

 4,000,000 feet of lumber are completed, as well 

 as two buildings of the same size, 300x100, for 

 dressed lumber. A log boom, 40 acres in ex- 

 tent, has been faced with crushed stone, the 

 power plant is complete and a standard guage 

 railroad has been built 25 kilometers into the 

 timber, besides several miles of sidings. The 

 foundations for two planing mills, each 100x200 

 feet, a dry kiln of 250,000 feet daily capacity, a 

 machine shop and foundry have been built. 

 Thus far 900 cars have been delivered to the 

 plant for the new railroad. A brick kiln is 

 turning out 10,000 to 15,000 brick daily and a 

 small turpentine still is in operation. The com- 

 pany has built a 60-room hotel, 57 cottages for 

 American employes and 66 for Mexican em- 

 ployrs. The company's plant will turn out half 

 a million feet of lumber per day, and immense 

 quantities of by products in the shape of coke, 

 turpentine, brick and various chemicals. 



ASKS GOVERNMENT'S AID. 



Hon. Peter White, of Marqtiette, has visited 

 \Ya-hingtoii for the purpose of requ< 

 the secretary of agriculture to detail an ex- 

 pert to advise with and assist himself and his 

 fellow members of the Mackinac State Park 

 commission as to the care and preservation 

 of the forest trees in the beautiful island of 

 the -: raits, the Mecca of thousands of tourists 

 each summer. For the past several years 

 some tree blight has been attacking and kill- 

 ing the tamaracks, and more recently the oaks 

 have been sharing the same fate. There are 

 forty dead oaks between the old fort and the 

 cemetery alone. Mr. White will ask that the 

 forestry bureau of the government make use 

 of the park for experiment purposes, for 

 which, thickly wooded as it is, it offers ex- 

 ceptional opportunities. 



MENOMINEE LOGGERS. 



The X. Ludington Company of Menominee 

 has let a number of logging contracts in Me- 

 nominee county and some of the jobbers have 

 camps started and are cutting and skidding 

 logs. The company is operating a camp on 

 the Pike river and as soon as the timber there 

 is cut the camp outfit and crew will be moved 

 to a tract of timber east of Amberg. The com- 

 pany will operate a large camp on the Wiscon- 

 sin Northwestern railway the coming winter 

 and will also let a big contract on that road to 

 some jobber, the timber being in 35-17 and 

 35-18. 



Among the jobbers with whom D. J. Mc- 

 Allister, woods superintendent of the N. Lud- 

 ington Company, has made contracts, are the 

 following: 



Emil Evericks, who has his camp started in 

 33-21 and will cut over a million feet of mixed 

 timber, the logs to be banked on the Menomi- 

 nee river. 



Louis Frisque will operate a carnp near Ce- 

 darville, where he has about a million feet of 

 Tamarack, hemlock and cedar logs to cut and 

 bank on -the Pike river. He will also cut a 

 large amount of cedar posts and poles, this 

 material to be shipped by rail. 



August Alborg is getting his camp started 

 at Cedarville, where he logged last winter. He 

 will get out considerable cedar material for the 

 above company, besides logging some timber 

 which he owns in that section. 



Frank Wittock expects to log for the same 

 company again the coming winter in 33-21, 

 where he will cut timber and bank the logs on 

 the Menominee. 



H. C. Shields has taken a contract to cut 

 about 600,000 feet of pine timber for the Saw- 

 yer-Goodman Company. 



THE LUMBER MOVEMENT. 



During September there came to Bay City 

 9,982,762 feet of lumber by water, of which 

 4,090,000 feet came from American ports, 

 mostly the Lake Superior district, and 5,892,- 

 762 feet from Canadian ports. 



There also came into Bay City during the 

 month 1,087,000 pieces of lath, and a raft of 

 logs from Garden River, Ont., containing 

 1,466,127 feet consigned to Burton Bros., of 

 Barden River, to be manufactured at Camp- 

 bell-Brown lumber mill for Wentworth & 

 Ross, the second raft from that port this 

 season. 



At Saginaw the lumber receipts for Sep- 

 tember were 6,481,757 feet, and also 1.013,908 

 pickets and 46,580 pieces of lath. The total 

 lumber receipts at the two ports were 16,464,- 

 519 feet. 



OPERATE MILL THIS WINTER. 



At least one of the Menominee sawmills 

 will be run throughout the winter, and it is 

 very probable that one of the shingle mills 

 will also be operated. The J. W. Wells mill, 

 which has been in commission steadily day and 

 night during the summer, will be operated this 

 winter. The company has a large quantity of 

 timber which will be brought in by rail. It is 

 at the present time turning out large quanti- 

 ties of lath. It is operating the lath mill on 

 jack pine which is brought in in large quan- 

 tities with the regular timber, which is sawed 

 into lumber. The jack pine makes excellent 

 lath and it can now be secured in very large 

 quantities. The Spies sawmill will be shut 

 down after the Boom Company ceases opera- 

 tions, but the shingle mill will probably be 

 operated this winter. The plant of the Me- 

 nominee River Shingle Company may also be 

 operated this winter. 



The machinery from the dismantled Allen 

 mill in Cadillac has been shipped to Ozark in 

 the upper peninsula, where Mr. Allen is now 

 building a lumber and shingle mill. Mr. Allen 

 has a contract for the cutting of 100,000.000 

 shingles, 500,000 railway ties and about 7,000,- 

 000 feet of lumber for the firm of Bockes & 

 Grover, of Kalkaska. His contract will re- 

 quire four years steady running of the mill. 



