Address: Along the bike trail off Court St
1857 – Chippewa Falls Lumber Company organized with a Capitol of $100,000, with Hiram S.Allen as President.
1858 – Bankruptcy and another catastrophe struck when the spring water and ice-floes came down the river with such force that the new dam, several piers, booms, and immense quantities of logs were lost.
1864 – Became the Pound, Halbert & Company
1869 – Became the Union Lumbering Company with Thaddeus Pound as president. It grew to become the largest lumber mill under one roof in the world with a Capitol of $1,500,000. The company owned 80,000 acres of pine land, estimated to yield 700 million board feet of lumber. The capacity of the mill grew to 350,000 board feet in 24 hours.
1875 – Survived the financial panic of 1873 but forced to sell to creditors.
1878 – Sold to William Wallace for $150,000 who also assumed $300,000 in debts 1879 – Property passed to the newly organized Chippewa Lumber & Boom Company with Stanton Barnard as President
1881 – Entire interest sold to Frederick Weyerhaeuser for $1,275,000 with William Irvine as secretary and manager.
1886 – September 16, the big mill was struck by lightning and burned down with a $75,000 loss. It was rebuilt at once with ten fire hydrants installed for fire protection.
1890 – Production was 51,500,000 feet. It was the most extensive mill in Wisconsin and one of the largest for production in the United States. The plant occupies ten acres of ground for stacking yards, sheds, and the mill. The main mill was 112 X 165 feet in area with an L 36 X 53 feet. The equipment consists of two hangs, four band saws, four edgers, four trimmers, four slab slashers, two shingle mills, and three lath mills. 500 horsepower water wheels furnish the motive power. The cut is about 325,000 feet of lumber, 100,000 shingles, and 75,000 laths per day. The sister plant, located a mile away, occupied 160 acres of land. The planing mill was 56 X 120 feet and was built in 1884. Both plants had independent switches connecting with the main line of all the railways entering the city. There was also a narrow gauge railroad connecting the two plants, upon which the company operated its own rolling stock. About 400 people were employed year round. The company owned immense tracts of timber land.
1911 – Circular saws and band saws continued to whine day and night until the last pine log was sawed on August 2, 1911. The mill was shut down forever and sold for scrap.