Wilton Bunt joined his brothers-in-law Bud Walker, Lige Walker, and Tom Walker forming a sawmill firm named Walker and Bunt about 1900. The families milled in various places in Upshur County, including Coffeeville, Lafayette, and Indian Rock until 1921. The firm followed the policy of “cut out and get out.” The sawmill community moved to a location south of Hynson Spring Road and bounded west and east by Spring Branch and Gum Creek. Known as the Gum Creek settlement or the Settlement Between The Branches, the sawmill and planing mill operated from 1921 to 1925. The community of eleven homes also had a commissary and a school. The Walkers built both of the school houses, but the salary of teacher Gypsie Croft was paid by the county. A map of the Gum Creek settlement can be found at page 17 of the Bunt work listed below.
The families were growing as babies kept coming as well as other extended-family members. The Gum Creek settlement was becoming too small. Land about two miles to the southwest was located, and the land and the buildings abandoned. The lumber from the houses was used by Douglas Floyd to build barns, chicken houses, and a milk parlor.