Hunewill Upper Sawmill

Napoleon Bonaparte Hunewill and his wife Esther arrived in San Francisco from Maine in 1859, and early in 1861 they came to Aurora. By late fall they were building a home at Buckeye Hot Springs. In 1862, N.B. Hunewill had the Eagle Creek Lumber Mill in operation, and because demand for lumber was so great, the Upper Mill opened in 1863. Seventy-five men worked at the two mills. Wagons piled with lumber, each pulled by 16 oxen, headed for the Hunewill Lumber Yard in Bodie, where the lumber was quickly used in residences and in the mines. The trees now in this area are second growth, and evidence of the log slide on the north side of Buckeye can still be seen.

California · United States