Schmitt Brothers Mill - Siskiyou County, CA
N 41° 45.341 W 122° 15.288
10T E 561951 N 4622918
This historical marker is located along Ball Mountain Little Shasta Rd and mentions a former mill site.
Waymark Code: WMP1QK
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 06/11/2015
Views: 3
Our family located this historical marker based off a PDF
document for Jefferson State Backroads that describes its history and it reads:
"Schmitt Brothers Mill"
The Plaques of E Clampus Vitus
Humbug Chapter No. 73
The eighth in a continuing series of articles
prepared by Bill Wensrich
"If you ain't plaque'n, then you ain't Clampin'"
Locating the Schmitt saw mill resulted in the eighth historical marker erected by the Humbug Chapter of E Clampus Vitus. Although Bill Haas was the Chapter Humbug at the time, it was Mac McKellar who was instrumental in the placement of this historical marker. Located 15 miles east of Montague, California on Ball Mountain Road, the marker preserves the location and memory of Siskiyou County's lost lumber industry.
When first erected, the Chapter had the trail marker etched as "the site of Deter Mill." Discovering their error, Mac had the trail marker replaced with the current historical information.
Mining in Siskiyou county wanted by the turn of the twentieth century leaving few employment opportunities. Logging grew as the economic mainstay of the area replacing mining as its major industry. Although Siskiyou County logging operations commenced with the first settlers, the advent of the tractor and other early twentieth century technologies made it much more profitable and enabled the harvest of steep and inaccessible terrain. At one time there were thirteen lumber mills in the 1940s Yreka area. Young folks today don't remember the tepee burners of old populating the Pacific Northwest. By the 1980s and 1990s, some say due to environmental concerns, logging began its decline. By the turn of the twenty-first century logging in Siskiyou County is pretty much a thing of the past.
The marker itself is the most simple marker I've seen to date doesn't even acknowledge itself as being an E Clampus Vitus marker. It reads:
SITE OF
SCHMITT BROS. MILL
1930 - 1939
The actual mill site is listed on some topography maps a few hundred yards south of this marker and is on private property with 'NO TRESPASSING' signs so access to this former mill site is restricted. It's also listed as 'Old Schmidt Sawmill' (spelled differently). BUT... our family located another former mill site east of here a short distance and is also listed on some topography maps as 'RUINS' and we were pleasantly surprised to be able to access it and discover a caved-in wooden building, metal logging remnants and even an abandoned logger's cabin. You can visit it here and here.
