Our History

When the first Moorthorne settlers cut timber along the Duskmoor River in 1812, they could not have foreseen the fortune that would soon follow. The young United States was at war with Britain, and timber was the very backbone of the war effort.

Ships needed masts, forts needed beams, cannon carriages needed hardwood - and Duskmoor’s untouched old-growth forest was rich with all three. What began as a modest sawmill on the river bank became, almost overnight, the lifeblood of an industry.

By late 1813, the Moorthorne Sawmill was running day and night. Rafts of cut logs floated downriver toward coastal shipyards. The Duskbaine family, then newcomers, supplied labor, provisions, and logistics to support the operation. Their partnership cemented the town’s future.

The profits were staggering. With every plank shipped to naval yards in Boston, Portsmouth and beyond, the wealth and influence of Duskmoor’s founding families deepened. Within a decade, the mill expanded threefold, employing dozens and feeding an entire community.

Some say it was luck that the War of 1812 came when it did. Others whisper it was timing too fortunate to be chance. Whatever the truth, the Moorthorne Sawmill’s rise from a riverbank shed to the town’s economic engine began with war.