Laurie Petroni

Have you ever heard stories about Diamond Lake once being the location of several saw mills? Is it true that sawdust still remains at the bottom at the far- western side of the lake? Did Diamond Lake get its name from a sawmill run by the Diamond Match Company?

These questions are answered by the second in a series of articles taken from the History of Pend Oreille County, a book written by Tony and Suzanne Schaffer Bamonte. The Bamontes have generously allowed the DLIA newsletter staff to reprint some of the articles. As a member of the editorial staff, we truly appreciate their generosity.

The Sawmills

One of the first sawmills in the Diamond Lake area was the Atlas Lumber Company. It was built in the late 1890’s by U.S. Reidt, (best known as the superintendent for King Sash Door & Lumber Company for many years), his father and uncle. The mill, located north of Diamond Lake in the John Jore and R.D. Anderson region, fell on hard times after a few years of operation. In 1902, King Sash bought the sawmill, operating there until 1906, at which time it relocated at Penrith.

In the early 1900’s the Spokane Lumber Company owned about 16,000 acres of forest land between the headquarters in Milan (in northern Spokane County) to the Pend Oreille River. It supplied logs to the Ferdinand Beyerdorf family mill at Wild Rose Prairie in Spokane County for several years prior to the big fire of 1910.

The fire of 1910 hit the Diamond Lake area hard. However, much of the burned timber was salvaged. As the Spokane Lumber Company began logging the area, the Beyerdorfs relocated their mill on the southeast shore of Diamond Lake (near the present public access) about a half mile south of the Trask’s mill. By 1911, the mill was in operation, producing 100,000 board feet per 24-hour period. Because time was critical in the harvest of the burned trees, a narrow gauge railroad line was constructed northwest from Diamond Lake to Deer Valley to expedite the transportation of the charred logs. The train dumped the logs into the lake where a steamboat hauled them across to the mill. The Spokane Lumber Company built a three-mile logging road to Scotia to transport the lumber from Diamond Lake to the Great Northern station. From there, it was shipped to the company’s planing mill in Milan.

The Beyersdorf mill continued until 1913, when they sold it to the Spokane Lumber Company. However, Ferdinand Beyersdorf continued to run the company store. The entire operation closed in 1915. Until that time, the major Use for Diamond Lake was as a millpond, to keep the logs wet for the sawmills. If logs are allowed to dry before sawing, large cracks will form down the sides, and during the sawing process, the lumber falls apart at the cracks.

So there you have a brief history of the sawmills in Diamond Lake’s history. I guess the story about the lake getting its name from the Diamond Match Company is a myth. As for the remnants of the sawmills, I checked with authorities and there is in fact a deep layer of sawdust mixed in with the lake sediment at the western end of the lake.