The Osceola Mining Company had built its first mill along the shores of Portage Lake, just west of Hancock on a little spit of land still known today as Osceola Point. Unfortunately the mill was short lived, as a federal mandate would force it and every other mill along the waterway to close its doors and move elsewhere. The sprawling mine tailings the Osceola was dumping into the Portage was interfering with the navigable channel, and the mill would have to find a new home if it were to continue to operate.

This was a problem for Osceola’s parent company, a group of powerful investors known as the Clark-Bigelow syndicate, who had just begun operations on a second mine neighboring C&H. The company knew that it would soon need an expanded mill complex to handle both mines and a large dumping ground in which to deposit its considerable tailings. This new company proceeded to buy up a large plot of land along nearby Torch Lake, just south of C&H’s land holdings. This new mine was the Tamarack, who promptly began erecting itself a massive mill complex along the shore and laying a new railroad to reach it. The year was 1890.

In 1896 the Osceola Mine had finally closed its mill on the Portage and erected a new complex next door to its Tamarack brothers. By the end of the century over five mills would be congregate in the same area, and the surrounding landscape quickly became over run with worker housing. The area would become known as Tamarack Mills and later incorporated into Tamarack City.

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