Saw Mill Stills

[NORCALLOGGER]

Hi all,
As I posted in the photo of the day thread I spent last Friday up at the mill introducing my Brother-in-Law to the owners, they are going to collorabate on some video work. 

Anyway my BiL took some shots during his introductory walk around the mill property and put them together in a short You-Tube video.

You can see it here if interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4yTgu3tB74

Thanks for taking a look
Rick

[Seattle Dave]

Great shots!  Any chance you will post them as stills for reference purposes?  There are more than a couple that I'd like to add to my ref collection.

Dave

[danpickard]

Hi Rick,
That was a very nicely composed selection of great images.  The odd water leak shots kind of added really well to the deserted feeling of the mill.  Good stuff.

Cheers,
Dan

[NORCALLOGGER]

Glad you liked the shots,
The pictures are not mine to post, sorry.

Though the mill may look deserted it is only in winter idle down.  The box factory was running last week producing custom boxes for the Louis L'Amour sudio books, boxes seen in one of the pictures. 

This saw mill is the only 100% steam sawmill in the United States that is still in regular production milling.  The family settled on the land in the late 1850's and built their first mill (water powered) in 1897, the steam mill your seeing was built in 1933-34.  Much of the equipment was brought from the water powered mill to this mill and reinstalled.  Many of the band resaws and planers as well as engines that are used almost daily date from the 1880s-90's. 

Later
Rick

[mabloodhound]

The equipment at the Sturgeon steam sawmill is a little older (1914) and there are some nice photos of it in operation, although not on a regular basis.
http://www.sturgeonsmill.com/
A google search will find some videos of this operation also.

[Chuck Doan]

I have never heard of that one. The Sturgeon mill was recently featured on the PBS California Gold series in full operation. The Hull-oakes milll and the now defunct Frase mills are also known.

This one looks really neat, I wonder how it has stayed below the radar.

[NORCALLOGGER]

Chuck,
Actually I have posted pictures of this mill on here a couple of times before but sometimes things go unnoticed at today's pace.

The Sturgeon mill is well known in "modeling circles" because of Boone's documentation and presentation to the hobby world, and it is only operated for exibition. 

Hull Oaks uses steam for the head rig and carriage, everything else in the mill is electric or electric/hydraulic.

The Phillips Mill is all steam, even the electric generator mounted in the mill is steam driven.  This generator is used so that the circle saw teeth can be sharpened in place, so the saws don't have to be dismounted and moved to the saw filing loft in the box factory.

The box factory is all steam power except in the 1980's a diesel generator was added to power unit heaters and electric staplers and wood branding machines.  The lights and heaters allow the box factory to run in the winter while other operations are shut down. 


Not surprised you haven't heard of this mill before, us "brush Okies" up here in Northern California keep a pretty low profile. But hopefully that will change soon.  My book on the Phillips Mill should be published this spring and the film clip of stills I posted is the first test run of, hopefully, several video productions of the entire operation.

Later
Rick

[Chuck Doan]

I look forward to it. A vintage steam mill with a log pond operating today? Priceless.

[Philip Smith]

thanks for linking those awesome photos that drip! great trip!

Philip