By the 1810s, pine became the tree of choice for export to Great Britain and the United States. It was the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway in Sturgeon Falls in 1882 that caused thousands of lumberjacks to migrate westward and quickly spread out over the Sturgeon and Temagami River watersheds to cut down the large red and white pines.
The year 1905 saw the establishment of both the first local sawmill and Hotel in Field. This was soon followed by the establishment of several sawmills including a steam sawmill on the banks of Hébert Brook near Desaulniers and the Field Lumber Company, conveniently located on the Pike and Sturgeon Rivers near the railroad track.
The latter, which became Mageau Lumber in 1918, was capable of producing 16,000 feet of lumber per day! Unfortunately, the Mageau Lumber sawmill was completely destroyed by fire in 1922, in 1929, in 1963, in 1995 and finally in 1998.