Sawmill at Fort George

NE of the first requirements of a new district is build-

ing material with which to erect permanent homes.
Almost the first industry established at Fort George with
the inrush of settlement was a lumber mill, and, with en-
largements and extensions as shown in the above picture, it
is still the busiest spot, both night and day, in a busy town.
The mill is now equipped with a thoroughly modern
plant, so designed as to save handling in every possible way.
Frequently it is running for twenty-four hours a day, and
six——and on occasion even seven—days a week, and still it
has hardly been able to meet the demand for lumber. In the
early days of the mill’s operation, when as yet there was not

a team of horses in Fort George, it was the usual daily
spectacle to see citizens waiting for the night gang at the
mill to quit work, and the day gang to come on. As soon
as the crews were changed, the waiting customers bought up
every board that had been sawn since sundown the previous
day, and before eight o’clock struck there was nothing but
an increasing pile of sawdust to denote the day’s cut at the
mill, the citizens having carried away all the boards on their
backs to their new buildings.

With increased equipment at the mill, such conditions
are now a thing of the past, but that the demand for lumber
still taxes the mill’s capacity is attested by the small size of
the lumber piles surrounding it.

Page ‘Twenty-seven