These travels were preparatory to the time when he hoped to become a government deputy surveyor. Meanwhile, his career was the trade of a millwright in the state of New York. Burt, at the age of 32 in 1824, moved to Michigan from where he lived in Massachusetts. He came into the acquaintance of influential prominent men who urged him to settle in the city of Detroit. There he lived and worked building sawmills and grist mills. He traveled up the St. Clair River in 1825 to an area that is now the city of Port Huron. There he built mills on the Black River for businessman Robert Smart. Smart named them Clyde Mills after the River Clyde of his native Scotland. In 1827, Connecticut-born Detroit merchant Ralph Wadhams bought the mills from Smart and later in 1829 moved there from Detroit. This was when Smart, together with Wadhams and Detroit politician John Biddle became interested in the pine lands of St. Clair County to exploit them for lumber. The sawmills ultimately became a significant business of the district and in time they became known as Wadhams' Mills since Ralph Wadhams spent the remainder of his life living there – 48 years.