The small family business, employing a handful of men in the beginning, soon grew into a small community. The Mclean family moved out to the mill site and built a home. A few workers lived on the site permanently and living quarters were constructed for their families. Japanese and Chinese workers and their families had their own living quarters, and a small school was constructed for the children living at the site.

Most workers were single men who lived in the bunkhouse, and the amount of work and number of workers varied with the climatic and economic seasons. The workers ate and gathered in a cookhouse and the caretaker had a house.

Robert Mclean's three sons eventually each managed different mill operations. "Arnold managed the sawmill, Walter overlooked the logging division, and Philip was in charge of a subsidiary division in Cumberland" (Chathan, Robert, A Twentieth Century Industrial Smithy, p.6) Arnold's son Howard finally ran the business until it closed in 1965.

When roads were built to the sawmill people began commuting to work from Port Alberni, and the sawmill became a working place with most employees living away from the site.

Social artifacts of interest