In 1866, Pentwater was a bustling lumber town with three sawmills, two shingle mills, one barrel-stave mill, a planing mill, and one foundry. Tall stacks of drying lumber covered all available ground, rafts of logs clustered along the shore, and sawdust-paved streets were choked with the stumps of recently felled pine trees. By 1905, after fire had destroyed the mills and the area forest had been gradually depleted, only the Sands and Maxwell sawmill and the Halsted Table Factory remained of the lumber-related industries. After completing their sawing in 1905, the Sands and Maxwell sawmill closed, and in the spring of 1913 it was torn down, ending the lumber era in Pentwater.