SRHS
Steamboat Rock Historical Society
TIMES ARE CHANGING
LUMBER YARD
When Steamboat Rock was first settled timber was in abundance. It seemed that there was an unlimited amount of trees for building lumber and fire wood. It would prove to not be so. In as little as 10 years the supply was nearly exhausted.
This photo taken above the dam show the lack of timber that had earlier flourished along the river.
The problem was that this was after all the prairie and with exception for the timber that had been plentiful along the river there was no more to be had.
With the arrival of the railroad lumber could be brought from great distances at a reasonable price particularly
when the rails expanded northward into Minnesota.
The first lumber yard was established at the Steamboat Rock depot by Lathrop & Timson, in the summer of 1868.
Noyes, Turner, and Hayden had also started a lumber business in Steamboat Rock.
Lathrop & Timson, remained in business about two years, and then sold out to Hall & Conger, who moved the business up on Market Street. In 1873, they sold out to D. W. Turner. At the same time Turner bought out his partners in the first business. By the end of the decade his lumber trade amounted to about 500,000 feet annually.