LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – In researching what is believed to be a historic sawmill site near my home I came across information on the subject of sawmills by past Lake County historian, Henry Mauldin, and through Donald M. Griner’s book available at both the Lakeport Museum and Lower Lake Schoolhouse Museum, entitled “Early Saw Mills of Northern Lake County.”
People have relied on wood for thousands of years for homes, tools, and a myriad of other uses, albeit not to the large, and often irresponsible scale that came about during and since the Industrial Revolution in our country.
Before we understood the repercussions and consequences of logging, pioneers here in Lake County were considered as brave souls for taking on some of the most dangerous work around.
They typically lived in logging camps, enduring all manner of weather and labored long hours each day.
Because of the dangers involved in the occupation, many songs and stories were produced in the style of Paul Bunyan and Babe the giant blue ox.
According to the “History of Lake County 1881,” there were five sawmills in our county in 1868, nine mills in 1873 and three by the time 1880 rolled around.
They were powered both by water and steam. The mills relying on water for power had to depend on the stream flow, as large water wheels constructed of wood turned to produce power. Years when drought or freezing conditions occurred had a definite impact on their businesses.
One has to admire the ingenuity and tenacity that was necessary to run a sawmill in the 19th century.
For example, the Pine Mountain Mill built by J. Bateman and M. N. Young in 1865 on Bartlett Mountain, and sold a year later to H.A. Humphrey, was located in such rugged terrain that the ox teams were unable to handle dragging the logs.
Humphrey decided that if he couldn’t get the logs to the mill site, then he would move the mill site to the logs! Can you imagine transporting heavy equipment up to the mountaintop? The old steam threshing machine was, at last, relocated up the hill!
Pine Mountain Mill was later sold to the first sheriff of Lake County, M. H. Manlove, who in turn moved it to Saw Mill Flat.
Manlove devised a way for sawed lumber to be transported by lumber wagons to Lucerne and down to Clear Lake where it was loaded on barges and sent to its destination, often Lakeport.
As difficult as it must have been to secure the equipment and manpower for the milling ventures back then one can only imagine the hardships endured by the employee’s families who were homesteading in the mountains.
Despite the hardships, a school called Mountain Mill opened in 1885 on Snow Mountain. Unfortunately the school building was crushed in 1890 by heavy snowfall, which also destroyed two nearby mills.
Today, lumber is still in high demand. In times of prosperity people want new homes, and, conversely, after natural disasters like fire or floods, a need is also created for wood.
Logging remains a controversial subject as the precious state’s redwood trees and our own local forests remain threatened.
Hats off to the Lake County Land Trust and their long, hard work in saving the Black Forest of Mount Konocti!
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is an educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.