The Hardwood Lumber Company and the CCC Camp made Bastian a very busy place in the first half of this century. It brought the railroad and electricity to the town and Bastian bustled like it never has since. Once the hardwood forests were cut, then there was no need for the mill or the railroad, and Bastian returned to its quiet and sleepy state. Today it is hard to believe that this all happened.

Logs and lumber were mostly hauled by train. Dinky railroads brought the logs out of the mountains to the mill, and the regular gauge railroad that ran down Wolf Creek to Narrows, carried the lumber out of the county. It was boom and bust in Bastian. Its glory days of Virginia Hardwood and CCC Camp are long gone.