Sometime
in 1962 as Jim and I were returning home from a camping
trip, we stopped to watch and talk to some loggers. We learned
that the loggers were required to haul out big, partly rotten
logs (cull logs) at their own expense and was not getting
paid for them at the mill. Bear in mind, this was a depressed
economic time of our history, so even at the best; it was
not a job to get rich at.
Due to that encounter, the idea of a portable
sawmill was born. One light and portable enough to be taken
into the woods and manufacture lumber on the site, leaving
the rotten parts of the log. A truck capable of hauling
4,000 board foot of logs (scaled down and perhaps only partly
saleable) was able to haul 11,000 board foot of lumber,
making a profitable payload, the hauled lumber pieces all
had a value.
Through the ensuing years, many false starts
were begun, many models and experiments, chain saw bars,
circular saw blades, Onan engines, Briggs and Stratton engines,
and even 2 engines at a time and finally ending up with
what it basically is at this time. A VW engine and 3 circular
saw blades.
We erred in judgement, were discouraged and
disgusted and made enough unproductive decisions about ways
to get it manufactured and put it on the market. We licensed
a company to make it, but it was a very discouraging two
years.
Finally in January of 1966 we decided to act
on that old axiom, "if you want a thing well done,
do it yourself". Acting upon that decision, we rented
an old building, bought, begged and borrowed machinery and
started manufacturing the sawmill. Needless to say, we worked
many long hours and squeezed each dime until we could make
people aware of the potential capabilities of the sawmill.
Since the start, the sawmill has been used around the world
and has proven to be one of the best inventions.
