W. R. Stafford Saw Mill Chimney - Port Hope, Michigan
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S5280ft
N 43° 56.628 W 082° 42.541
17T E 362851 N 4867050
Located in Stafford Park east of M-25 at the end of State Street. Ample parking nearby.
Waymark Code: WM45GC
Location: Michigan, United States
Date Posted: 07/10/2008
Views: 37
From the Michigan Historical Marker on-site:
This chimney was built in 1858 by John Geltz. It is all that remains of the lumber mill established that year by William R. Stafford. Port Hope grew up around the mill. For a score of years this town was a center of lumbering in the Thumb. It also became an important producer of salt. In 1871 and again in 1881 the mill, the docks, and possessions of hundreds of people were destroyed by fire. This chimney is a monument to these pioneers who by their courage and industry developed this area.
From the Michigan Historic Site On-line: (
visit link)
Narrative Description:
The Stafford Saw Mill Site includes the site of the former sawmill, constructed In 1858, and its grounds and the largely covered over or submerged remnants of the Stafford dock that extended out about 1,000 feet into the shallow water of Lake Huron. The sawmill's last visible remnant is its chimney, which stands in a small, fenced-in enclosure above the beach. The chimney has ground dimensions of nine by ten feet. The lower twenty feet is built of sandstone and contains an open hearth eighteen by twenty-three inches in size on its southeast side. The upper portion of the stack is built of red brick and rises in gradually tapering form about another sixty feet. The Stafford dock, which extended into the lake from near the saw mill's east and, was a structure of timber cribs filled with stone. The dock was apparently largely destroyed in a storm in 1913, and the remnants are now for the most part buried beneath a newer breakwater at the same spot. The sawmill site is now part of a county park and includes parking, lawn, and beach areas.
Statement of Significance:
The chimney is the last remnant at the site of the saw mill which was the reason for Port Hope's settlement and the central part of its economy in the village's early days. The original saw mill at this site burned in the 1871 forest fire and was replaced by a second mill in 1872. That structure, burned in the 1881 forest fire, was replaced by a third saw mill, which was in use probably until the early 1890s. This chimney served all three mills. The last building of the mill complex left was removed in 1941 by a local farmer and made into a farm shed. The chimney has statewide importance for Michigan as the oldest substantial aboveground remnant of a large-scale sawmilling operation surviving in Michigan, which was the national leader in lumber production in the latter years of the nineteenth century.