Panhandle Lumber Mill
Spirit Lake was established in 1908 as a lumber mill town connected to Spokane by a railway. Once the flat land and hills around Spirit Lake had been logged, flumes (chutes) were run down Brickel Creek, and then the logs were transported by water to the Mill Pond.
Many millions of board feet of lumber were removed from the area during the life of the mill.
It's hard to imagine the Mill Pond as a sea of logs, but that was how it looked until the Great Depression and a 1939 fire ended the mill. Still, Spirit Lake was fortunate not to be downstream of mining operations, and the water quality of the lake today is quite good. Many oversaturated logs were removed when the Mill Pond was resealed.
When the Panhandle Lumber Company opened in the summer of 1908, it was the most efficient, modern mill on America's west coast. With a cutting capacity of 50-million board feet per year, the mill also generated electricity for the burgeoning town of Spirit Lake.
At its peak, 500 people were employed to support mill operations. A few cement remnants remain from the old mill, on private property to the north as you go down the hill towards the lake.
Fireside Lodge was the last remaining building from the Panhandle Lumber Company. Built just steps from the lake, the historic mill office served a number of uses through the years, but had fallen into disrepair. It was torn down in 2014 to make way for Fireside Park, a public beach and picnic area. Many locals still mourn the loss of this piece of Spirit Lake's history.
