Whats left of the Asam Sawmill

Some years ago, I wrote up a page about the Asam brothers steam powered sawmill when I had last seen it in operation, in 1987. Somebody familiar with the sawmill e-mailed me about it. Apparently, the Sault Star newspaper had run an article about the 'preservation' effort that had been done on the sawmill. Apparently, the intention had been to take it all apart, and number and label everything , so that it could eventually be put back together in some sort of museum setting.

However, this effort was carried out in such a way that it did not further the preservation of the mill. While the mill was in fact dismantled, the parts were subsequently just threwn in a messy pile outdoors and left to the elements.

The person who e-mailed me, Tara Cowder, was also kind enough to e-mail directions on where the mill is, and how to find it. (see bottom of page). Last September 2003, I went there to check out what was left of it. Here's pictures of what I found.

These pictures are primarily interesting when viewed next to my Writeup of the mill in operation

This is roughly how the pieces of the sawmill are 'organized'. The pulleys and shafts were all scattered on the ground, all rusting. The gadget on the right was the rip saw, with automatic feed.

This is the boiler. Interesting how its all made of riveted together steel plates. I have seen discarded boilers that were much more modern than this one.

This doohickey was a "sight glass" for measuring the water level in the boiler while in operation. The broken glass tube was used to see the water level, while the cast iron thing next to it was a "dashpot" to help equalize temperatures to make the readings more accurate, or something like that.

This was the carriage for moving the logs past the saw blade.

The cylinder, the heart of the steam engine, fortunately was kept under a roof, so it had been spared from the elements. Perhaps it will still some day grace a museum.

The main flywheel. The iron part towards the top right is the actual crank. The flywheel itself is mostly made of wood, but massively so. The pulley went around the outside of this flywheel, to a pulley perhaps a quarter of this size driving the saw blade. The flywheel went at maybe around 120 RPM. Slow enough that you could easily follow the piston going back and forth with your eyes.

Directions to the sawmill. Note that this appears to be private land. There is another sawmill just across from where the remains are.

If, like me, you like to play with a GPS, its at these coordinates:

Go to My ruins page