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Baltzell and Son <br />John M. Crockett <br />John G. Jameson <br />Thomas and Squires <br />Sawmills <br />Mills and Houlton Lumber Mill <br />furniture Maker <br />Tin and Ironware <br />Blacksmith and Carriages <br />Blacksmith Shop <br />600 <br />500 <br />3,000 <br />100 <br />In Uppertown, Mills and Houlton's Lumber Mill on the site of the Godfrey Mill <br />produced a variety of lath, single, or sawn lumber. The saw and planning mill was later <br />W.H. Houlton and Company and with 60 workers by 1900 was Elk River's largest <br />employer. 60 While the steam or water -powered planning mill remained on the Elk <br />River, in 1868 Houlton built a steam -powered sawmill on the Mississippi. Its log <br />elevator, which conveyed the logs from the river into the mill, was a distinctive feature <br />of the structure. Another Lowertown planning mill was built in 1873 by Thomas S. and <br />W.C. Nickerson. <br />One early resident remembered of the Uppertown mill that "north of this mill was a <br />"city of lumberpiles" with long narrow streets and what seemed to us in those days to <br />be regular skyscrapers of lumber on each side. At the northwest side of the yard were <br />the piles of slab wood ready for delivery to people in town. When the mill closed and <br />the lumber yard was finally abandoned there was still a large pile of kindling wood <br />there and for many years local people could go there and dig up slabs." 61 This mill <br />burned in 1887, part of the fire that spread to the chair factory and various sheds and <br />elevators (Timeline book says another fire in 1893?) <br />The Houlton Sawmill on the Mississippi. Photo: MHS <br />Elk River Historic Contexts Study Draft 412002 <br />25 <br />t� <br />