In 1956 Gene Frase built a steam powered sawmill near Onalaska, Washington, USA. At that time most commercial saw mills were moving away from steam power and Gene was able to pick up surplus steam equipment for use in his sawmill. Gene made a living running his sawmill up till a few years ago. Now in his 90's, Gene occasionally works with his son Steve Frase to run the mill as needed for projects for their own use. The pictures in this gallery were taken on December 1, 2005.

The mill is completely powered by steam using sawdust and slab wood to fuel the boiler. The one boiler provides steam for six steam engines that run different items in the mill. There is an engine that operates the winch that pull logs into the mill from the pond. There are two smaller two cylinder engines with one operating a hydraulic system for adjusting the width of cut on the log carriage and another operating the out/return feed rollers. The largest engine powers the main saw, head saw, log carriage feed and sawdust conveyer system. A vertical engine powers the swing saw that is used for cutting slabs into fire wood lengths. And the last engine runs the planer.

More pictures at: http://www.pbase.com/jimthode/frase_steam_sawmill