by Jeanine Buettner
nammy@montanasky.com

W.P. McMannamy Sr. moved from Missouri to Helena in the late 1880’s where he ran a sawmill for several years.  Then in 1890 he moved the machinery to Kalispell and started a planer mill, located on 7th Ave. West and 11th street.

In 1905, Mr. McMannamy built a sawmill up McMannamy Draw on land leased from Mr. Rudolph Burkhardt. The sawmill was built to supply the planer with lumber. A pond was located next to the sawmill, and logging operations extended four to six miles from the mill. Logs were skidded to the pond with 2 or 4 horse teams. The crew logged the south side of McMannamy Draw and later Henry Good logged the adjoining area. Frank Lyons, Ed Holloman,  Glen Dern and Glen Walter have also logged in the McMannamy Draw area. These loggers all lived in the draw.

 McMannamy closed down the mill operation in 1918 because his business was operating at a loss and because he suffered from eczema aggravated by tamarack dust. He also sold the planer.

In 1908 rough lumber was worth $11.00 to $12.00 a thousand.

In 1923, the Kalispell Lumber Co. purchased and moved the mill to Kalispell, south of the Fair grounds. Employees of the mill lived in cabins built on the hill just southwest of the mill. The blacksmith shop still stands and the horse barn was moved down to Centennial Farm in the 1940’s and is still being used today.

Rudolph Burkhardt was an uncle of mine by marriage. Rudolph purchased the place in 1891 on a land patent which put money into the coffers to build our state. My grandfather purchased the place in 1938 from Rudolph. We have used a metal detecter around the mill site and have found many bits and pieces of a sawmill operation, including very large horse shoes, ax bits, parts of wood stoves, and many iron pieces of of equipment.