This Is America's Last Steam-Powered Sawmill

During the second half of the 19th century, the U.S. lumber industry?previously concentrated in the South and Northeast?carved into the timberlands of the Pacific Northwest. By 1880, some 77 steam-powered sawmills were turning out lumber in Oregon and Washington alone.

Today, Monroe, Ore., is home to the nation's last commercial steam-powered mill, the Hull-Oakes Lumber Co. Its annual output of 18 million board-feet is a fraction of that produced by most modern electrified facilities. But Hull-Oakes specializes, cutting beams more than 80 feet long and up to 3 feet thick, for bridge construction, as the spars or masts of tall ships, and more. A photo on the mill's website shows a 1940s 18-wheeler hauling a single log, a "110-foot timber for the world's longest love seat," the caption says.

Ralph Hull built Hull-Oakes in 1938 on the site of another mill that had burned down. Hull salvaged the boilers and planer but had everything else hauled in for the new facility, including the 1906 Ames Regal steam engine. The 16,000-pound brute remains the heart of the mill, churning at 150 rpm. Its reliability and staying power mirror that of Hull-Oakes's 60 employees.

Don Wagner, who signed on as a forester 50 years ago, is part of a great tradition. "Look at our mill supervisor," he says. "This is the only place he ever worked, and the only place his dad ever worked. Our lumber grader is third-generation: His dad worked here nearly 50 years, and his grandfather was a timber-faller."

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/extreme-machines/this-is-americas-last-steam-powered-sawmill?src=rss

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