Sherbrooke Sawmill Reopens on Sunday
The grand reopening of the McDonald Bros. Sawmill at Sherbrooke Village will take place on Sunday, June 9, at 2 p.m. in celebration of Museum Weekend. The opening includes a tour, followed by a visit to the adjacent Royal Oak Stampmill for music and refreshments.
The development of Sherbrooke is closely linked to the sawmill business and timber trade. In 1831, Joseph Howe, Nova Scotian journalist and politician, wrote of Sherbrooke that "The village is a creation of the timber trade." Wood was the mainstay of the economy of the area until the gold boom of the 1860s. Water-powered mills produced wood products destined to make buildings and ships. By 1861, Nova Scotia had 1,401 sawmills in operation, one of which was the original McDonald Bros. Sawmill.
In 1970, a working replica of a water-powered up-and-down sawmill was constructed on the site of the original mill site. Veteran millwright Peter Breen and historian Robert Frame, with the assistance of Gordon MacDonald, head woodworker for Sherbrooke Village, designed the new mill to be a realistic recreation that operated on almost every stream in Nova Scotia more than a century ago. The sawmill was a favorite spot for visitors for 30 years. Then it suffered the decaying effects of water and time.
Sherbrooke Village staff worked with a crew from the Department of Transportation and Public Works on the reconstruction project. The mill was completely disassembled and rebuilt from the ground up. A pictorial display will be set up to allow visitors to better understand the various stages of the reconstruction project.
Visitors will be able enter the mill to see the workings of the remarkable technology within. The mill features an up-and-down sawmill, a simple but ingenious mechanism that is a mechanical application of the hand-powered pit saw. A crank, driven by the waterwheel, moves the saw frame and single saw blade in an up-and-down motion, cutting into the log on each downward stroke. The up-and-down motion of the saw frame is also used to move the log carriage forward by means of levers and a ratchet. It takes several minutes to make one cut through the length of an average log.
On Sunday, as the big wheel starts turning again at the McDonald Bros. Sawmill, a significant part of Nova Scotia history will come to life once more.