Peter Van Winkle’s Sawmill circa 1850's - 1890

[Larry]

As normal, in the summer a pack of kids descended on us.  Being the chief tour guide its my duty to keep em all entertained.

So...this year I thought it would be interesting to hike the local trails in the morning coolness before the afternoon activities.

The most interesting to me was the trail to Peter Van Winkle's sawmill.  Nestled in a cool hollow with a spring fed crystal clear stream nearby.  At one time the biggest mill in Arkansas it was actually almost a town.  Nothing there now except for footings of some buildings.  The most prominent footing was for the steam power house which contained three boilers to power the 150 horsepower steam engine for the mill.

I leaned back on one of the park benches and right quick I was seeing the activities of a going sawmill...it was really getting interesting when the steam whistle blew, signaling time to get back to work...or in my case wake up and answer pesky kid questions.

I've since been doing some research and found a quote that the mill produced 1,300,000 BF/year.  This seems woefully low...me thinks somebody left out a zero.

The power house footing.



And iffen you have time and interest...Van Winkle's Mill

[breederman]

Interesting!

[bandmiller2]

Yea his brother Rip was the sawyer and we all know that story.Production does sound low,most of the people that rite about these things don't have the foggiest notion of production, it sounded big to them. Frank C.

[shinnlinger]

I went to a local "history of logging" talk the other night and an oldtimer there said his father had an "up and down" water powered mill that would only cut an inch per stroke.  He said on 36 foot beams they would set the mill and then go read the paper as it would take some time to make a pass.

He has an old Belsaw at his place that he says has never sawn a log and I think I need to go pay him a visit.  His brother used to manufacture  a small cant hook for the mill and a peavey that had some neat modifications and were pretty popular around these parts.

[bandmiller2]

Shin,have you had a chance to check out that Belsaw,the great fate of circle mills is their owners have great hopes but they sit as a pile of parts until someone junks them.Most folks don't know where to start with a box of parts.Frank C.

[shinnlinger]

I plan on visiting soon...  He is right down the road and a neat guy full of great stories.  I will try to get one of his recently retired sons to take an interest using Tripps and Jim Paramedics examples of chevy repowering and see if I can get them going....

The local Lane mill got water in a cylinder over the winter and is out so it might be time for the Belsaw to sing again....