The first sawmill on the North Shore of Burrard Inlet was the Pioneer Mill, situated 1.6 kilometres east of the former ferry wharf at the foot of what is now Lonsdale Avenue. The mill was opened in June 1863 by T.W. Graham & Co. of New Westminster. The mill closed 6 months later due to high shipping costs, delays and expenses as a result of its isolation, and a general depression in the lumber industry.
In December of 1863 the mill and 300,000 metres of logs in the woods were auctioned off to John O. Smith, a grocer from New Westminster, for $8,000, outbidding S.P. Moody. Smith renamed the operation Burrard Inlet Mills and made Victoria, British Columbia, his target market.
The mill’s success in 1864 inspired Smith to begin exporting his lumber. The first export of lumber was on November 9, 1864, to Australia, aboard the barque Ellen Lewis. Its cargo was 84,000 metres of lumber and 16,000 pickets (i.e., boards used for fencing). Not only was this the first ship to carry cargo from Burrard Inlet to outside of British Columbia, but it is also claimed that it was the first overseas lumber cargo shipment from the main land of British Columbia.
Unfortunately for Smith, his mortgage foreclosed in December 1864 before he could receive any return on his potentially lucrative Australia shipment.
Moody’s Mill
In 1865 a prominent figure-to-be came into the North Shore lumbering picture. Sewell Prescott Moody, an American from the State of Maine, bought the Burrard Inlet Mills and 1,943 square kilometres of timber from Smith for $6,900 on January 14, 1865. In 1868 Moody enlarged the mill and made the important upgrade to steam power. He immediately entered the international market since his newly acquired timber was of excellent quality. Moody’s Mill, as it was called, was the framework around which the lumbering town of Moodyville was built.
In 1866 Mr. Dietz and Mr. Nelson joined Moody in partnership.
A Customs Collector was stationed at Moody’s Mill to enter and clear vessels. Previously all ships had to go through New Westminster to be cleared. During the first year of operations, Moody exported two shipments to Australia and two shipments to Mexico, as well as shipments to Victoria, Nanaimo, and New Westminster. All lumber was loaded by hand, so the loading of a single ship could take as long as two months. To keep up with demand, Moody acquired an additional 6,621 square kilometres of land under a 21-year one-cent-per-annum lease, requiring his mill to produce 7,500 board-metres per day.
Even with stiff competition Moody’s Mill was the chief export centre for British Columbia for 20 years. Between January 1867 and June 1868, Moody loaded 33 ships with 1,779,000 metres of lumber and 800,000 shingles. His tremendous success moved him to build a steam-powered mill 270 metres west of the water-powered mill. The mill was completed in September 1868, and contained the latest machinery such as a planing machine, a lathe-splitting machine, and a lathe. It was claimed that the two mills combined could produce 305 metres of lumber per day. The wharves for the two mills were connected, giving dock space for berthing twelve ships.
By 1870 Moodyville employed 200 people as:
"Vessels lay alongside the wharf where they are undisturbed by either the tides or the weather, perfectly safe. Moody has two mills, a steam and a powered mill, capable of cutting 80,000 feet in 24 hours; when necessary they work all night and day. Ship’s crew stow the cargo under the stevedore’s supervision. Lumber is taken from the wharf, spars from the water or lighter. Crab-winch or steam-engine, when on board, were generally used in taking on spars. Tonnage dues 2d per ton register in, and the same out. Pilotage $7 per foot; pilots can be had wither at Victoria or English Bay. Steam tugs when desired can be obtained at Victoria or Burrard’s Inlet at from $300 to $400 for towage from Victoria to the mills and back to Victoria. Ballast can be thrown out into the inlet. No wharfage dues to pay." Captain Looe of the ship Chelsea to his employers regarding operations at Moody’s Mill.
A fire in 1873 burnt Moody’s steam mill to the ground. The uninsured loss was estimated at $10,000, which was a phenomenal amount in those times. There was some speculation as to the cause of the blaze - perhaps an accident in the lamp room when the watchman was lighting lamps, or even an irate employee who had been recently fired. The water-powered mill was undamaged and continued operations until the reconstruction of the steam mill was complete in May 1874. The engines of the decommissioned H.M.S. Sparrowhawk, a British Man O’ War purchased by Moody, were used in the new mill and remained in operation for the lifetime of the mill.
Sewell Prescott Moody died in 1875 in a shipwreck while enroute to California. Since Dietz had already died, Hugh Nelson took over as manager and renamed the firm Moodyville Sawmill Company. Robert Patterson Rithet, Andrew Welch, James Burns, Montague W. Tyrwhitt Drake, Peter McQuade, and John Irving joined Nelson in 1878.
By 1891 the mill had improved and now cut 36,600 metres of lumber per day and employed 120 people directly. In 1891 the Moodyville Mill, along a 4.8 kilometre stretch of waterfront, and 127,262 square kilometres of timber were sold to English interests representing the estate of Lord Lonsdale for approximately one million dollars. After a depression in the lumber industry, the mill closed in 1901 and was taken over in 1902 by B.C. Mills, Timber and Trading Company and operated until the First World War. A fire destroyed the idle mill in 1916, and when the low level road built by the Municipality of North Vancouver as a route to the Second Narrows Bridge was put through in 1927, the remains of the mill were demolished.
The Western Corporation
The Western Corporation was formed in 1902 under the chairmanship of Mr. A. B. Diplock. The company’s main objective was to provide homes on the North Shore of Burrard Inlet for those of moderate incomes. Later the directors decided to operate their own sawmill on the North Shore. They owned extensive stands of timber that would last them several years.
Western’s mill was located on 17th Street two blocks east of Grand Boulevard in an undeveloped area. It had a unique design since it was almost entirely powered by electricity. The mill was composed of many buildings: mill, machinery, offices, bunkhouses, cookhouse, stables, and a dry kiln with steam power. There were separate bunkhouses required for the mill’s Sikh employees.
The Western Corporation’s employees came from all over the globe. Employees at the mill would work long hours under rain or shine six days per week, with Sunday off. The many workers at the mill included:
Some years later the Western Corporation suspended its business and the Seymour Lumber Company was formed and took over sawmill operations. A.B. Diplock became the managing director of the new lumber company.
The Yardman's duties included odd jobs like pushing hand carts loaded with lumber and assisting piling lumber as it came from the mill. Correct lumber pilling was more difficult than it seemed. The Assistant Yard Foreman would be in charge of grading lumber as it came down the conveyor from the mill. This would mean marking and grading the lumber as it passed so that it could be sorted into piles later by grade and dimensions.
The Seymour Lumber Company acquired timber rights on Timber Mountain, which is East of Grouse Mountain. It would prove very costly to haul logs down the mountainside, so the mill was moved from 17th Street to a site high up on Timber Mountain. A shingle mill was constructed lower down the mountain and a planing mill was built on St. Georges Avenue to finish the lumber for delivery. Soon after all three mills were working at full capacity, the Lynn Valley brush fire of 1913 became out of control with strong easterly winds and swept through the logging camp. The main mill, shingle mill, and a large quantity of cut logs were destroyed. This was the end of the Seymour Lumber Company.
Miscellaneous