Photographs of Puget Mill Company, Port Gamble, Washington, approximately 1890-1900

In July 1853, New England sea captain and lumber merchant William Talbot picked the sand spit at the mouth of a bay called Port Gamble for a sawmill. Talbot was a partner in the Puget Mill Co. and later in Pope & Talbot, which sold lumber and other merchandise in San Francisco. At its zenith in the 1920s, the mill employed more than 250 men and women. Workers' families lived in the company town with a church, a hotel, a medical clinic, schools, social clubs, a theater, store, post office, and even a mortuary and cemetery.

The last major upgrade was in 1858 and by the 1910s, the mills could not compete with more modern mills that had direct railroad connections. In 1925, Portland lumberman Charles McCormick offered to buy the mill and the company town and the Puget Mill Company accepted. (Historylink)