Classy Women Surprisingly Embrace The Simple Made Breckenridge Sawmill

Classy Women Surprisingly Embrace The Simple Made Breckenridge Sawmill

 

Most people think of today’s Breckenridge, Colorado as a great place for winter skiing and a vibrant shopping experience. Or, hiking, mountain biking, fly-fishing, and wildflowers the rest of the year. Look at why this unforgettable Colorado mountain town became so popular because sophisticated women envisioned more than miner’s tents and log cabins. 

 

The History Of Breckenridge Began With A Gold Rush

 

The Pikes Peak Gold Rush brought prospector and Breckenridge founder Thomas Breck into the area in 1859. By the late 1880s, Breckenridge started transforming from a tent city to a booming town. 

 

Roughened miners created primitive towns in the Colorado mountains during gold rush years. Even though identifying one tent from another was difficult, each miner made their tent homelike with their personal touch. Each day when they left home miners intended to strike it rich, and after a hard day of mining they returned to the same grizzly tent. Day after day. A woman’s touch was needed!  

 

Sawmills started to pop up around Colorado mining towns adding a few comforts from their rough-cut boards. For instance, miners could build a platform underneath their tents to lift them out of rain and mud. Although miners and their primitive towns were rough around the edges, recognition needs to be given to females. And females of the era were expressive with what they wanted sawmills to create.  

 

The Planer Became The Most Important Sawmill Tool

 

A simple woodworking tool called a planer arrived at the sawmill that would transform Breckenridge and the western frontier. Planed wood got the attention of women as they embraced smooth boards and what they could achieve with them. 

 

Read on to discover why sophisticated women played a critical role in developing towns and shaping the western frontier.

 

Portable Sawmills With Planers Helped Mining Towns Grow

 

Sawmills in Colorado needed to be different from Midwestern and Southern sawmills. In the Midwest and Southern United States logs floated to sawmills using large rivers. Since the Colorado mountains don’t have large rivers, sawmills needed to be portable to go where trees were.  

 

Freshly cut trees were made into lumber at the sawmill then moved out of the forest. Often, a sawmill served mining towns for their needs.  As the Breckenridge mining camp grew, so did its demands. Businesses emerged to support the needs of miners.  

Planers took off rough surfaces of the sawed wood to create smooth boards. Many different uses of planed boards had planer operators working harder to help create better towns.  As a result of planers in sawmills, mining camps started growing into small towns. Buildings started to change from basic log structures to homes, hotels, churches, schools, saloons, fraternal halls and supporting stores. 

 

Simply, planers made for a better quality of life, and women liked that.

 

By 1880 Breckenridge had grown to around 3,000 people. In addition to earlier structures, it grew to include ten hotels, eighteen saloons, a dry goods store, assay office, grocery store, drug store, two dance halls, post office, and ten hotels. This town started by prospectors quickly grew into a booming western Victorian town.

 

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Visit The Breckenridge Sawmill Museum To See Firsthand How It Worked

As a matter of fact, classy women surprisingly embrace the simple made Breckenridge sawmill. Visit this museum to connect with the pioneer days of early Breckenridge.

 

Layout Of The Breckenridge Portable Sawmill Museum

 

Husk A husk frame consists of a circular saw and a drive shaft with bearings for keeping the saw rotation in proper alignment. The husk also contains the operator’s platform with a transmission to control the speed the log moves back and forth into the saw blade.

 

Carriage The carriage looks like a metal sled that holds a log. It moves backward and forwards into the saw blade. Next, a new log is loaded onto the carriage and secured for the rounds of cuts.  

 

Power Supply A gasoline engine built around 1930 is the only piece from the Wakefield mill. Wisconsin Motor Mfg. made these engines for Cletrac 40 crawler tractors manufactured by the Cleveland Tractor Company.  

 

Cut-off Saw The cut-off saw slides forward and backward cutting off ends of boards to meet the proper measurements needed. The operator uses a handle to control the movement of the carriage mounted saw.

 

Edger Saw The edger saw removes the outside edges of a board to cut the correct width or remove rounded edges and bark. The useful part of a log determines board sizes. The edger saw also made strips of wood like stakes and laths.

 

Buick Straight 8 A Buick straight 8 engine runs the planer and edger saw at the Breckenridge Saw Museum. This engine originally ran in a sawmill on the Colorado front range in between Denver and close to the small town of Conifer.

 

Sawdust Sluice Since sawdust quickly collected underneath saws, a sawdust sluice created an easy solution for carrying away unwanted sawdust. A sawmill channeled mountain streams underneath saws in a wooden sluice so that water constantly removed sawdust.

 

The Key Piece For Up And Coming Small Towns Is The Planer

 

Planer Planers smoothed rough edges on boards for several purposes. Mining towns had a lot of tents built on top of plank floors so boards needed a smoother surface. Planers were also needed for tongue and groove boards for products like furniture and flooring. Furthermore, planers played an important role in building up small towns as the transition from log cabins evolved. Classy women surprisingly embrace the simple made Breckenridge sawmill because planers created a more comfortable life.

 

Jobs In A Sawmill

 

Leading the way, and the most important job is a sawyer. His duties include making sure the saw blade stays sharp and runs true. Likewise, he supervises loading logs and securing them on the carriage. He also decides what size and how many boards will be created from each log, as well as how fast the saw will run to cut each log.  

The log loader positions the next log for sawing on the carriage.

An off-loader takes off each board after the saw cuts it. The freshly cut board immediately drops onto rollers making it easier to move.

After a board’s length has been decided a cut-off saw operator trims the end to the needed length.

Next, an edger saw operator runs the board through an edger saw to create the needed width.

Finally, the planer operator removes the rough cut by smoothing the board with a planer.

Now that the board is complete a stacker makes an organized stack of lumber so that it dries without warping.

Consequently, every sawmill needs someone to keep equipment working properly so the mill mechanic makes sure all moving parts get proper lubrication and operate according to specifications.

 

Additional Information About The Breckenridge Sawmill Museum

 

The Breckenridge Sawmill Museum is located at the original location where Marion and Zella Wakefield established their sawmill. This portable sawmill lasted here from 1933 to 1960 and was built by the Corley Company of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Moving a sawmill like this took a crew of 6 – 8 people to dismantle and put back together about 4 days.

 

The museum’s location is on Boreas Pass Road at the intersection of Monroe Road. Keep in mind this is a private road so don’t block the gate or the road.

• The museum is open year-round, weather permitting.  
• Free admission
• Free self-guided pamphlet 
• Authentic exhibits from a working sawmill
• No restrooms 
• Pets are not allowed

 Although the museum is not classified as an ADA site it is an open-air shelter with small gravel. You can easily walk through but wheelchairs will find it difficult to maneuver in some tight spots. 

 

Final Thoughts About How Women Influenced Breckenridge

 

All in all, classy women created a more comfortable town to live in instead of an everyday uninspiring ho-hum mining camp. The sawmill planer enabled the Breckenridge mining camp to grow into an old west Victorian town. Now, take a look at modern-day Breckenridge to see how sawmills influenced the Victorian architectural style of downtown.  

 

Take a deeper view of Breckenridge. Think about how the town would look different without a simple sawmill tool called a planer. Also, consider how smart women saw better ways to improve this mining town into a more comfortable and enjoyable place. By using boards from a planer their visions of building more elegant towns were achieved.

 

Thanks for reading Classy Women Surprisingly Embrace The Simple Made Breckenridge Sawmill.

Tom and Kristi

 

What unique museums have you found in small towns?