The first lumber mill on this site in Cass, West Virginia was built in 1902. It burned in 1922 and was immediately replaced by a much larger mill. The new mill operated until 1960 when it was abandoned because timber in the adjacent mountains had been logged out. Capacity was 125,000 board feet per 11-hour shift, with two shifts a day six days a week. It produced 35-million feet of lumber per year at peak production. After abandonment, the mill stood for more than two decades as a slowly decaying reminder of the generations of loggers, railroad men, and millworkers who had toiled in the mill and on the surrounding mountains. Two arson fires in the 1980s destroyed its many large wooden buildings, so all that remains is what you see here.
