Station: Lewiston, MI

Lewiston was settled in southwest Montmorency County in 1891 when the area forests were cut for pine. [MPN] The Michelson & Hanson Lumber Company established a mill and general store here. The town was named after Lewis Jenson, a bookkeeper for a local lumber company. [LITF]

Photo Info: Top, a MC passenger train at the Lewiston depot around 1900. 2nd photo, the Michigan Central depot at Lewiston. [Dale Berry collection]

Notes

Two mills were constructed here, one a sawmill and one a planing mill, both at East Twin Lake. These mills employed 150 men. M&H also built three hotels to accommodate employees and their families. They also built a general store, several restaurants, saloons and even a house of ill repute to entertain the restless lumbermen. [LITF]

In 1910, M&H left Lewiston when the pine forest was near depletion. Between 1910 and 1916 a series of fires destroyed much of the original two blocks of downtown Lewiston.

After pine was harvested, the area turned to the hardwood trees in the area which the Kneeland-Bigelow Company continued to log until 1929. The first K-B camp was located five miles north of Lewiston. A second camp was located at Gaylanta and became their temporary local headquarters. Later, their permanent headquarters were established in the K-B Valley, nine miles southwest of Atlanta. All timber was shipped by the Michigan Central Railroad to Bay City were the main office and two sawmills were located.

Lewiston was the furthest Michigan Central railroad station northeast from Grayling on this branch, however numerous branch lines extended north and east from here into the forests. The town was also served by two narrow gauge lines from Oscoda County, the Lewiston & Southeastern railroad (owned by the M&H company), and the Au Sable and Northwestern railroad which came north from McKinley (near Fairview).

The Michigan Home Colony Company purchased depleted lumber land for farming, in an attempt to provide jobs after the lumbering era. [LEW]

The Lewiston area was an example of how narrow gauge railroads (L&SE, AS&NW) were used to bring timber to the mill, and then standard gauge (MC) to bring milled products to market. During the hardwood era, logs were transported all the way to Bay City for milling.

In the early 1890's, the M&H moves their operations from Otsego Lake in Otsego County to Lewiston, a jump over the Gratwick, Smith & Fryer Co. (GSF) cut over lands and others.

The H.M Loud & Sons Lumber Company lands followed the Au Sable River northwest to Lewiston and owned the narrow gauge Au Sable & Northwestern railroad which went north and west of Lewiston to the Bear Lake area in eastern Otsego County. According to an advertisement, Loud sold lumber, cedar, shingles, pump tubing and telegraph arms. After his timber was cut over, Loud sold his property to the Michigan Home Colony Company, [LEW]

Narrow gauge railroads brought logs to East Twin Lake where they were dumped on a rollway into the lake. They were then brought up to the second floor of the mill for milling by a conveyor. The lake pond was kept heated in the winter by steam lines.

The M&H mill was considered a good-sized, modern operation in its day. It was located close to the lake on the east side of Mantz Street (extended). Boilers were in a separate building next to the smoke stack with only a steam line connecting to the engine building and to the main mill building so that in case of a fire or boiler explosion, the whole mill would bot be destroyed. The mill used sawdust as boiler fuel. There was also a large cylindrical chip burner. The boiler powered a Corliss steam engine, manufactured in Providence, Rhode Island. Belts carried power from the shafts to machinery on the 2nd floor. An alternator generated power for the village of Lewiston until the mill was dismantled around 1910. The mill complex also used a 3-foot narrow gauge railroad system between buildings and stock pile. Product was taken out on the standard-gauge MC railroad. [LEW] 

Time Line

1866. First timber speculators began buying land around the future town of Lewiston. [LEW]

1887. Thomas Sheridan probably had a single mill on Sheridan Creek, four miles northeast of Lewiston near McCormick Lake, and a sawmill east of Buttles Road, about five miles north of Lewison. He cut timber in those areas before Lewison began but his lumber was only used locally. There were corduroy logs used to transport forest products. 

1891. The town of Lewiston was formed by the Salling and Hanson Company. A saw mill, planing mill and shingle mills processed logs here. [LEW]

1892. The M&H mill at Lewiston had a capacity of 100,000 board feet per ten hours and was built and put into operation by April, 1892. It ran one week when it burned to the ground. A new mill was completed by August,1892 and run day and night, cutting on average 100,000 feet in 24 hours. [LEW]

1893. M&H begins operating the Lewiston and Southeastern narrow gauge railroad which operates from Lewiston southeast fifteen miles. [LEW]

1896. The AS&NW railroad reaches Lewiston. Miller notes that it may have had a connection to the M&H mill or the MC Lewiston depot. The railroad had a telephone line from Lewiston to company headquarters in Au Sable. [LEW]

1896. April. Repairs at the big mill are going on with a rush under the supervision of foreman Lundeen. It is expected that operations will start up again about May 1st. - Lewiston Journal [CCA-1896-0423]

1903. Almost no government-owned land around Lewiston in Cram's plat book, so either people had bought or homesteaded all of it. [LEW]

Industry

• Kneeland & Bigelow (Kneeland-Bigelow)
• Michelson & Hanson Lumber Company
• Michigan Home Colony Co.
• Saling Hansen & Company

Lumber Firms Associated with Salling & Hanson

• Bay City Sugar Company
• Grayling Lumber Co.
• Kerry & Hanson (mill in Grayling)
• Kneeland-Bigelow
• Johannesburg Manufacturing - until 1930
• L. Jenson Lumber Company
• Michelson and Hanson Lumber Company (M&H) - Lewiston Mill until 1910.
• M&H Store in Lewiston
• Michigan Sugar Company
• R. Hanson & Sons Lumber Company