Ames Lake was first logged in 1927 by Siler Logging. The lake had been used as a holding pond where logs were kept until they were loaded onto railroad flatcars and sent to the mills.
In 1946, railroad pilings were still left in the lake, as well as hundreds of lost and discarded logs. That year, a man named Jim Jackson, along with a friend, used a hand-winch to get the derelict logs to shore. They cut them up and sold them to a nearby mill.
