The Barbee Mill Co. started around 1930 as a small lumber mill and then a combined lumber mill/shipyard operation. Barbee Marine Yards, Inc., operated in the May Creek section of Renton from 1943-1945, thereafter it closed and the lumber mill expanded. First located at the south end of Lake Washington, Barbee Mill Co. moved in the 1940s to its new 22-acre site on the eastern shore of the lake. Barbee Mill operated at this location for over 50 years, until dwindling timber supplies and environmental regulations forced the company to downsize in the 1990s, and a fire in 2002 shut down the last of its operations. The property was later sold to local homebuilder Connor Homes for about $35 million to create 114 units of luxury housing in a new lakefront community.
In March 1993, family-owned Barbee Mill Co. laid off more than 60 employees, nearly half its workforce. Despite demand, the company was unable to fill orders because of the dwindling supply of lumber bought from federal forests, due in part to endangered species habitat protections and other environmental issues. This photo shows a Barbee Mill worker in March 1993, using a small tug boat or "log bronc" to retrieve logs from Lake Washington.
Caption information source: “Despite a Demand for Lumber, Renton Mill Will Lay Off Shift” by Bill Virgin, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 10, 1993, p. B6 Caption information source: “Luxury homes for old mill's site,” Seattle Time s, June 23, 2006, p age D1 Caption information source: Barbee Mill Company, Department of Ecology website, retrieved at https://apps.ecology.wa.gov/gsp/Sitepage.aspx?csid=2368
