Many early settlers were fishermen but due
to our many large trees, especially yellow
pines, sawmills were built. Before the Civil
War, the largest sawmill town in the U.S. in the
manufacture of yellow pines was Point
Washington. After the lumber was
manufactured, it was loaded on large sailing
ships for export.
Bay County and St. Andrew Bay areas owe
much of their progress to sawmill and lumber
pioneers. Ben Steele, who built the Bay Line
Railroad was a sawmill man. Later came
Walter Sherman with his sawmill located in
Millville near Mr. Steele's railroad.
When the lumber business was fading, Mr.
Sherman was concerned about the future of his
employees and the economics of our area. He
contacted the International Paper Company
who built our papermill in 1928. Stone
Container purchased our papermill in 1979.