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Sawmills <br /> <br />Mills and Houlton Lumber Mill <br /> <br />In Uppertown, Mills and Houlton's Lumber Mill on the site of <br />the former Godfrey Mill produced a variety of lath, single, or <br />sawn lumber. The saw and planning mill was later W.H. <br />Houlton and Company. With 60 workers by 1900, it was Elk <br />River's largest employer, s9 While the steam or water-powered <br />planing mill remained on the Elk River, in 1868 Houlton built a <br />new steam-powered sawmill on the Mississippi (see photo <br />below). Its log elevator, which conveyed the logs from the <br />river into the mill, was a distinctive feature of the structure. <br /> <br />In Lowertown, a planing mill was built in 1873 by Thomas S. <br />and W. C. Nickerson. One early resident remembered of the <br />Uppertown mill that <br /> <br />north of this mill was a 'city of Iumberpiles' with long <br />narrow sh'eets and what seemed to us in those days to be <br />regular skyscrapers of lumber on each side. At the northwest <br />side of the yard were the piles of slab wood ready for deIive~aj <br />to people in town. When the mill closed and the lumber yard <br />was finally abandoned there was still a large pile of kindling <br />wood there and for many years local people could go there <br />and dig up slabs.' oo <br /> <br />This mill bumed in1887 in the fire that spread to the chair <br />factory and various sheds and elevators. <br /> <br />Tire Houlton saw mill on the <br />Mississippi. Undated view. Photo: <br />MHS. <br /> <br />Elk River Historic Contexts and Phase [I Downtown Co~nmercial Area Study <br /> 33 <br /> <br /> <br />