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For now, this is a slide show, a pictorial based on Judy Nichols-Uebinger's book about The West Eminence boom days. Most photos were scanned directly from the book, and turned out surprisingly well. Others are scanned from my own collection, most of them of the ruins of the mill that were taken when I was growing up. The picture at the right shows part of the concrete wall of what would have been the southwest corner of the mill's lumber-drying kiln. My late father, James Madison Knight, used the foundation and walls and built a large oak barn on the former structure, complete with hay loft, manger, tack room and corn crib. Dad bought the property after the mill had been dismantled, a process in which he was involved, having been an employee of the company. There was land enough for a small farm, some fifty acres or so. At the time a spring-fed creek ran through the west pasture. By now It's pretty well dried up. But my brother Frank and I used to catch crawdads in it when we were kids. (He now owns the property along with our paternal grandparent's place a ways across the West Eminence valley to the north.) Other live water came from the old mill pond—also originally spring-fed but since filled with leaves and debris—plus a pond that Dad had Hines and Ellerman Road Construction Company build that's on the east side of the place. The spring that feeds it is still alive, but barely. Sadly, most small springs in the Ozarks area also suffer the ravages of passing time. Saddest of all is Mahan's Creek. When I was a kid it was almost the size Jack's Fork River is today. In any case, perhaps somebody will enjoy the pictures of the West Eminence sawmill and logging operations, especially if they have roots in Shannon County or West Eminence. The Mill was a big deal in its day. Judy was right to use the phrase, 'Boom Town.'
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