The Kirby Lumber Corporation built a new mill at Bronson in 1901 and 1902. The sawmill building proper (36-feet by 164-feet) extended over the log pond. The mill first burned on the evening of September 21, 1915. Although the loss was $75,000, it was rebuilt. The saw mill, boilers, and timber dock were lost to fire on March 14, 1927. Although the mill appeared in a 1928 lumber directory, Kirby records do not necessarily confirm the mill ever being rebuilt. The company mill for Kirby in 1928 is listed at Steep Creek as well as Bronson. The Steep Creek operation was an ancillary plant by 1928. Kirby Lumber company announced in November 1930, that it was going to close all its mills with the exception of three pine mills until further notice because of the effects of the Depression. The mill never reopened.
Shirley Lewis in an oral interview with Vernon L. Beasley reported that the Kirby Lumber Company at Steep Creek had a commissary, tenant houses, a post office, and a movie house. The equipment in 1906 included a single-cutting bandsaw, a 32-foot carriage with shotgun feed, a 32-foot trimmer with 120 saws, a 50-foot edger, a 20-inch by 24-inch steam engine, an overhead 72-inch cutoff or dragsaw for logs, an underneath cutoff saw for the trimmer. Drying equipment included two dry sheds and one steam kiln with a 20,000-foot capacity. The planer shed machinery could cut 75,000 feet daily with two Hoyt fast-speed machines, one flooring machine, one double 6-inch sizer,a 30-inch resaw, an edger, a 16-inch by 24-inch steam engine, and two boilers (14 feet and 18 feet long, respectively). The plant also included an 18,000-gallon overhead tank and one-half mile of dollyways. Longleaf timber was logged at Camp 14 with two Shay locomotives, fifteen log cars, twenty-two mules, and two oxen. The tram was three miles in length, and four log trains ran daily. J. W. Lewis was the mill superintendent. Mill appraisals valued the mill at $40,000 in 1904 and $146,277 in 1911. One hundred fifty men were employed at a total monthly wage of $5,000.