Settlers from Albert Lea, Minnesota, established Gig Harbor's first sawmill, the Gig Harbor Lumber Company, near this waterfront site in 1887. The mill cut as much as 100,000 board feet of lumber daily, and its 450-foot wharf accommodated boats that came for lumber, sometimes 15 sailing vessels and steamers at a time. Mill workers lived in rows of shanties up what is now Rosedale Street, and the owners also built boats in a shipyard next to the mill. In 1888 they launched the steamer Albert Lea, and in 1890 the schooner Vine. Hard times in the early 1890s led to struggle, and the mill was sold under foreclosure in 1891. After changing hands several more times, it was purchased in 1899 and moved to Clear Lake along the Skagit River, where it operated for several years before burning down. The industry continued in Gig Harbor afterward, with other mills appearing and logging lasting into the 1950s.