George W. Hopkins

Who was George W. Hopkins?

George W. Hopkins was a lumberman involved in the removal of tens of thousands of acres of virgin forests in Michigan and Florida.

Hopkins was born in 1844 in Virginia. His father soon moved his family to Michigan in search of farm land. Hopkins became a surveyor and map maker at a young age, and then moved to Manistee, Michigan in search of work. Along with his brother David, wife Ella, and sister Martha, he commenced to start a brick manufacturing business in Manistee, and then soon found profit in the lumber business.

In 1873, the Hopkins family purchased the 88 acres of the current village of Bear Lake, Michigan. The Hopkins built a saw mill, a grist mill, several business buildings, platted the village, and built homes for themselves.

In the 1870s, Hopkins build a railroad, the Bear Lake & Eastern, which moved logs to the mill, and from the mill moved lumber to a pier five miles to the west of Bear Lake, on Lake Michigan. The area there was named Pierport.

In 1902, all of virgin forests in the Bear Lake vicinity had been removed, and the saw mill was closed.

He had at least one daughter, named Agnes.