Early in the 1880s, J. M. Rush set up a sawmill at the south end of what later was a part of Mancos.
Some of the lumber in the early 1880s was carted in from Parrot City. The lumber for the first school came from Parrot City. Lizzie Allen at the age of 15 was the first teacher in that school. Frank Morgan operated a sawmill in Thompson Park and Oen Edgar Noland worked for him hauling logs.
By 1893, several sawmills were in operation, but all were closed down due to troubles over timber rights, and 200 men were unemployed. Those men were teamsters, cutters, trimmers, edgers and skidders. The men employed in the mills, lumber yards and hauling the finished products to market came to a considerable number for each sawmill operation.
In the spring of 1894, the Forest Park sawmill, owned and operated by W. J. Blatchford, was destroyed by fire. He decided against rebuilding and moved to town, where he built a hotel that he sold to Harry Ausburn soon after its completion. It became known as the Ausburn Hotel and later as the The Mancos Hotel. It stands west of the Opera House some 120 years later.
Hyde Fielding operated a small sawmill across from the Bauer House. Another operation was that of Fred Hamlin and Pete Hiebler. In 1893, they brought in a planing, lath and shingle mill from Montrose and set it up in a stand of timber 10 miles northwest of town. A railroad siding was built to the mill at Millwood. That operation was what the Millwood Restaurant was named after. Around 100 men were employed at the Hamlin-Hiebler mill.
Hamlin and Hiebler dissolved their partnership in 1900, and Hiebler kept the big mill, which became known as the Montezuma Lumber Co. In 1902, Hamlin died at a Colorado Springs Elks convention at age 47.
Darrel Ellis is a longtime historian of the Mancos Valley.