A quick guide to the best sawmill services in Wisconsin and Minnesota from an experienced, working sawyer.
If you've got logs sitting on your property and you're trying to figure out what to do with them, the first thing I'll tell you is this: hire a local sawmill if you can.
A sawmill operator who works in your region knows the wood species you're dealing with, knows how Wisconsin weather affects drying times, and can actually get to your property without charging you a hefty travel fee.
But "local" doesn't always mean available. Wisconsin has a solid community of sawmills and portable sawmill rental services, but not every mill takes every job. Some have minimum log volume requirements. Some won't touch storm-damaged trees. Some are booked out for weeks. And if you've got a black walnut that came down in a storm, you want someone you can fully trust.
So here's how I'd approach it: figure out what your project actually needs first, then find the sawmill service that matches.
The biggest time-waster in this process is calling five different sawmill services and answering the same questions over and over. Or worse, realizing day-of the mill can't handle what you've got. Before you reach out to anyone, it helps to know your log sizes, species, site access situation, whether the tree is storm-damaged or might have metal in it, and roughly how many logs you're working with.
We put together a full guide on this: Portable Sawmill Service: What to Know Before You Book. Worth a read before you start making calls.
Use the map to find operators near you.
🟢 Green markers are portable sawmill services (they come to your property).
🟤 Brown markers are traditional stationary mills (you haul logs to them).
A portable sawmill service brings the equipment to your property (you don't haul anything). That changes the logistics significantly for most landowners and homeowners, especially if you're dealing with a single tree, a remote location, storm damage, or a log you'd rather not move.
If you want a deeper breakdown of when each makes sense, we covered it here: Traditional Sawmill vs. Portable Sawmill: Which Is Right for You?
Here are some of the best portable sawmills in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Location: Rice Lake, WI
Capacity: 36” log diameter
Pricing: Starting at $500 per day
Portable sawmill service and live edge slabs, serving Wisconsin and Minnesota. We take storm-damaged logs and metal-contaminated wood. No minimum log volume. First blade free on new jobs. Highly reviewed and favorite for landowners in Wisconsin.
Location: Waupaca, WI
Capacity: 36” log diameter
Pricing: Contact for pricing
Family-owned since 2021. They have a stationary mill with kiln drying and custom dimensioning on site, but they also offer mobile sawmill services in Wisconsin and will come to your property. Handles logs up to 38 inches in diameter. Good for central Wisconsin landowners who want flexibility.
Location: Evansville, WI
Capacity: 36” log diameter
Pricing: Contact for pricing
Custom milling and woodworking for southern Wisconsin. Known for working with sentimental trees and producing furniture-grade lumber. Kiln drying available.
Location: Lake Elmo, MN (Twin Cities area)
Capacity: 36” log diameter
Pricing: $150 per hour (4 hour/$600 minimum)
Portable milling service that comes to your property, with a strong focus on walnut and native hardwoods. Also sells kiln-dried live edge slabs. Good option for the Twin Cities metro and surrounding areas.
Location: North Branch, MN
Capacity: 41” log diameter
Pricing: Most services between $100-$300
Focused on unique hardwood and softwood products with a sustainability angle. Worth contacting to confirm travel radius and current services. Services start at $100 so a good budget option.
Traditional wood mills in Wisconsin are a good option when you've got volume. These sawmills run faster on high volumes and often have kilns on site, which matters if you need dried lumber fast.
The trade-off is that you're hauling logs to them, which adds cost and logistics. Not to mention most traditional mills won’t even take “homeowner” logs. Instead they buy only from logging operations and established supply chains they trust. If they do take homeowner logs, they have minimum size requirements and won't take storm-damaged trees or logs with metal contamination.
Location: Menomonie, WI
Capacity: Up to 36' long
Pricing: Contact for pricing
A serious operation. Stationary circular sawmill capable of producing timbers up to 36’ long, with over 2 million board feet of annual capacity and kiln drying on site. Focused on Eastern White Pine timbers, hardwood lumber, and rift and quarter-sawn patterns. They're also a full log and timber building company if you're looking to go from lumber to a finished structure. Good fit for contractors, timber framers, and large-volume buyers in western Wisconsin.
Location: Madison, WI
Capacity: 6' wide x 23' long
Pricing: Contact for pricing
Large capacity bandsaw sawmill in the Madison, Wisconsin area. Josh offers a full range of custom milling services, like dimensional lumber, live edge slabs, and custom projects. They’re mill cuts up to 6' wide and 23' long, plus they have an inventory of pre-cut lumber.
Location: Sullivan, WI
Capacity: 4.5' wide x 18' long
Pricing: $200 per hour
Small family-run boutique mill specializing in urban wood reclamation. They take trees from local homeowners and municipalities and turn them into live edge slabs, dimensional lumber, and wood art pieces. Kiln drying and slab flattening on site. Urban Wood Network member.
Location: Preston, MN
Capacity: Custom
Pricing: Contact for pricing
Over 50 years in business, full-scale sawmill with kiln drying, custom millwork, and forestry services. Takes custom orders and serves Minnesota and surrounding states. Best for higher-volume buyers in Minnesota who need dried, finished lumber.
Once you find a local sawmill that fits your needs, there are still some questions you’ll want to ask before hiring. Here's what I'd want to know if I were on the other side of the call:
Do you come to me, or do I haul logs to you? These are two completely different services. Make sure you know which one you're getting
What log diameters and lengths can you handle?
If applicable, do you work with storm-damaged trees? Can you mill logs with possible metal contamination?
How do you charge, hourly or by the board foot? Hourly is straightforward. Board-foot pricing rewards efficiency and tends to work better on larger volumes.
What's your travel radius, and is there a travel fee?
What do I get at the end of the day? Green lumber, live edge slabs, rough-cut dimensional stock? Know what you're getting before anyone shows up.
Do I have to have a way of moving the logs? Many times logs stacked in a pile can be transferred to the mill without machinery. However, having a machine on site for the day of milling increases productivity drastically. This is especially true when the bigger the logs, when machinery typically becomes a requirement.
If you're still looking for options beyond this list:
Wisconsin DNR Urban Wood Directory: Operator listings with capacity specs by region.
Wisconsin DNR Forest Products Industry Listing: An interactive map designed to connect buyers of wood with Wisconsin’s primary mills
Urban Wood Network: Searchable member directory, especially useful for salvage and storm-damage situations.
portablesawmill.info/wisconsin: Smaller independent operators who may not show up in the bigger directories.
Wisconsin has good wood and good sawyers, and I genuinely mean that. There are people on this list doing excellent work. If one of them is right down the road from you, call them first. But if you're in northern Wisconsin or Minnesota, we'd love to hear from you. Tell us what you've got. Nine times out of ten, we can work with it.
Ouray Chastain is the owner, operator, and sawyer at Mustard Seed Wood Transformations. In 2022, Ouray purchased his Norwood mill with one goal: To build a home for his family. Like that first mustard seed, what started as a personal project grew into something far greater. Today, Mustard Seed is a business rooted in faith, hard work, and the idea that every tree has a second life waiting to be revealed.
Mustard Seed Wood Transformations is a portable sawmill service based in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, serving Wisconsin and Minnesota. We're members of the Urban Wood Network and specialize in custom sawmilling, live edge slabs, and salvage milling for storm-damaged and sentimental trees.