06/18/2026
(Information from “Green Branches & Fallen Leaves and
“The Shawnigan Lake Lumber Company 1889 – 1943 by Robert Brian Griffin”)
The Shawnigan Lake Lumber Company found the sawmill to be totally inadequate by 1909 and decided to construct a new mill.
In June 1911, the old sawmill was finally closed and the machinery moved to the new mill.
The destruction of the sawmill by fire in 1918 was a serious loss considering the short interval since its construction. The source of the fire was unknown but a major contributing factor occurred when "the so-called fire-proof roofing caught fire and slid off the roof and went flying through the air, lighting fires all around."
A bucket brigade, fortunately, saved the planing mill with its new P. B. Yates No. 91 profile matcher, the recently remodelled dry kilns and the lumber yards.
Optimism pervaded the period and William Munsie, Jr., did not hesitate to rebuild his sawmill. In February 1919, he announced that reconstruction had commenced and that "considerable material was now on the ground, and that it was his intention to go ahead with all speed and get the new mill going at the earliest possible date."
Since times were prosperous, Munsie opted to construct a larger mill, with a shift capacity of 75,000 feet. The new equipment remained basically the same, two sixty inch headsaws, eight by sixty inch edger, and an eight inch band resaw.
A new lath mill, with a capacity of fifty thousand feet was constructed along with a new "first class" machine shop. The dry kilns were expanded to eighteen thousand feet per day by Walsh
Construction and power was provided by three six by sixteen horizontal
boilers.
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