This sawmill is a typical example of a small country sawmill of the first half of the 19th century, which provided its local population with all their needs in sawn lumber. The sawmill was one of the first public buildings erected in a new small frontier town as the demand for lumber, not only to erect buildings, but to produce furniture, barrels, guns and wagons was very high. The sawmill was erected along a stream or river where the river was damned to create a millpond. The water from the millpond was funnelled down a chute to a power wheel which in turn powered the saw blade. In this sawmill, water powers the vertical saw blade as well as the carriage that pulls the log through the blade. A switch of the mechanism and the carriage reverses in order to make another cut through the log. Amazing technology at the turn of the century!
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