Exterior view of the Isaac Staples Sawmill Building at 400 Main Street North in Stillwater, Minnesota. The building is also known as the St. Croix Lumber Mills- Stillwater Manufacturing Company on the National Register of Historic Places. This mill was built in 1853 by Seth Sawyer and Alvah Heaton. It was purchased in 1869 by Isaac Staples. He was a powerful lumber baron in the St. Croix River Valley during the logging boom of the late nineteenth century. Staples arrived in Stillwater, from Maine in 1853 as a representative of eastern investors. Hersey, Staples, andCompany became the largest single owners of timberland in the St. Croix valley. Aside from his massive holdings and operations in timber, sawmills, and the St. Croix Boom Company, Staples was also the region's most successful farmer and an important banker.