From Jake's Point to Bay Point: Investigations of a 19th century lumber mill.

Summary

Located along the western bank of the Blackwater River in Santa Rosa County, Florida, lie the remains of a once active and flourishing lumber mill and associated company town, known as Bay Point Mill of Pinewood, Florida. The abundance of yellow pine lumber and multiple waterways necessary to produce water power and provide a means of transport for timber allowed the region of Northwest Florida to become an ideal location for the development of the lumber industry; growing to comprise over one hundred mill sites.

While not the oldest mill in the area, or the largest, smallest, or most complex, Baypoint Mill was unique and distinct from the other local mills in that the location of the saw mill machinery sat upon an artificially constructed landform of brick, French terracotta roofing tile, and ballast stone which all rest approximately one hundred meters offshore within the Blackwater River. Additionally, beginning in the late 1880s, ownership of the mill passed through the hands of a number of Italian brothers from multiple families. This paper demonstrates the impact upon which Italian ancestry played upon the structural design, location, and operations of a Southeastern American sawmill.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage