Special Exhibit:
Logging and Sawmills: Rabun’s First Industry
When regulations were few and natural resources were abundant, lumber companies began to buy land in Rabun County for its old growth timber. Thousands of acres of this same land would be sold to the U.S. Forest Service beginning in 1911. Gennett Lumber Company land along the Chattooga River was the first tract acquired by the new Forest Service. At one time there were dozens of sawmills in Rabun County to manufacture lumber from the raw materials logged on Rabun's mountainsides.
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Floating logs down the Chattooga River in 1910
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Floating logs to the mill, 1910
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Carl Henry and Marvin Kilby, loggers
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Neville family hauling a chestnut log
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Loading logs onto rail car
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Tom Ritchie sawmill
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Splash dam on Camp Creek
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Tom Harkins logging with mules
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Roscoe Nicholson, right at Ritter's
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Logging with oxen at Warwoman Dell in 1929
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Homer Grist sawmill
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Ritter Lumber Company Sawmill in Mountain City
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Tom Mitchell's sawmill, Clayton, 1928
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R.F. McCurry sawmill, Lakemont, 1914
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Sawmill in the Germany community, 1908
