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.