The early steam driven sawmills needed three things – access to a shipping point, a supply of logs and water to feed the boilers. Every creek (they say “crick”) along the Mendocino coast was a site for a mill at one time or another. There are none left.
And, the mills came in every shape and size. Very few of the mills were very big. The largest by far (and the longest lived – over 100 years) was the Union Lumber Company Mill in Fort Bragg. Right is a gallery of mills that produced the redwood “gold” for over a century.
When we started the research for this website we had no inkling that there were any working steam powered saw mills in existence. Our research has found three within a reasonable (depending on your definition) distance from Fort Bragg:
- Roaring Camp and Big Trees at Felton (http://www.roaringcamp.com) – the mill is a very simple affair and does not operate very often.
- Hull Oaks Lumber Mill outside Monroe Oregon – This mill can handle BIG trees – see this link: http://thisiscarpentry.com/2011/02/05/
- Sturgeon’s Mill near Occidental. Occidental is but a hop, step and a jump from Fort Bragg
Sawmill Modeling by Morgan Griffiths
Published 1998 by Paradise Publishers
Apart from the detailed plans of a small sawmill the book is full of useful facts. For instance – Lumber mill production is generally given in board feet. A board foot is 12 inches by 12 inches by 1 inch thick. Logs are also measured in board feet, but it is a fixed quantity depending on log diameter and length. This is referred to as board feet log scale. Alas, the two are not related. For example, a log which is 3 feet in diameter and 16 feet long has a volume of 113 cubic feet, or 1,356 board feet, log measure. However, if you allow for bark, sawdust and waste, the volume of lumber could be as little as 60 cubic feet, or 720 board feet, lumber measure.
The pictures in the book aren’t the world’s best but they do the job of informing the uninitiated. If you want to build or help build a sawmill for your layout the book provides a very good reference.
