above: Beneath the main mill deck, the boiler and the engine room are run by the fireman, who is responsible for
controlling the steam pressure. There are two main engines: an 1850s Atlas main engine and a late-1800s Erie steam
engine. The boiler has an automatic pop-off valve if the pressure gets higher than 150lbs. The original boiler burned
wood as fuel, creating a lot of smoke, which often filled the canyon. Today, the boiler is heated by diesel fuel.
below left: Oilers slowly drip oil through petcocks into the operating crankshafts. below right: The fireman,
Tom Schaeffer, opens the valve or throttle on the 6" black iron steam line. Schaeffer is Ralph Sturgeon’s grandson and
he’s also the millwright, the mechanic who maintains the machines at the sawmill.
Photography by Branca Nitzsche (top), and Dale Dougherty (bottom)
About a dozen workers are needed to operate the how it powered an engine that converted reciprocal
sawmill, each one with a very specific function. motion into rotating power, and then how this rotating
“It is very clear when you look at this old mill that it was power was transferred throughout the mill by the use
very labor intensive,” says Harvey Henningsen, who is of belts and jack shafts.”
leading efforts to restore the mill. “That was the eco- Sturgeon’s Mill ( sturgeonsmill.com) is located near
nomic downfall of the mill as the 1950s slipped into the Sebastopol, Calif. (about four miles from MAKE’s
60s and 70s and modern equipment replaced workers.” offices). Henningsen’s father, James, and Ralph S.
He believes the mill is worth maintaining so that future Sturgeon bought the mill in 1943. It operated in various
generations can see “how water was converted to steam, locations from the late 1880s until 1964.
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