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St. Helen is an unincorporated community in Richfield Township, Roscommon County. In the 1870s, lumber baron Henry Stephens established a large lumber operation at St. Helen, considered at the time to be among the largest and best equipped in the state. The mills were estimated to have produced more than 1 billion board feet of lumber within a period of fourteen years. Most of the logs were moved by river, but lumber was also moved by rail. The St. Helen Development Company was organized to sell land and promote development of the area, and over seven years sold 80,000 acres of land and helped to build more than 30 miles of roads and over 80 miles of fencing. St. Helen was named after the Lake. It is believed that French voyageurs named it after Saint Helena of Constantinople, mother of Emperor Constantine.
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