Sturgeons Mill
e have an old friend who is a guide at Sturgeon’s Mill in Sebastopol. He conducts a 40 minute tour which is very informative and highly entertaining. I resisted attending this for 20 years which is one of the things I don’t like about myself. I was persuaded to go when he drummed up a lot of interest in our new neighbors over a BBQ at our house. I will go again. I could not have imagined gawking at 100 year old machinery that is still in service or hearing how to drop a 300 foot redwood in a specific spot, not a general location but a specific spot. I couldn’t even picture in my mind how a single saw could cut slabs big enough to make a harvest table from a massive redwood trunk. The entire process of picking the tree, sending a young climber 150 feet up a tree, dropping branches all the way, cutting and dropping the tree top to place a rolling block on the new flat surface on top and then by a very slow process, bringing up larger and larger rolling blocks until you had one that could handle the 2 inch diameter ropes that would haul the massive trunks that lie on the ground. The machinery that cuts a pathway through the forest floor to get the tree to the road where trucks waited to haul it was still there and still working. Everything but the manual labor was powered by steam which could cut 16000 board feet a day. When the big new mill came into Scotia in northern California it could cut that much in 2 hours and thus put all the small mills out of business.
It was so interesting and different from any other block of knowledge I’ve garnered that I found it hard to absorb it all and am anxious to go back to hear it again. Meanwhile you are in the forest where this has been in operation for well over 100 years, and you are surrounded by trees which makes it all so real. Many of the men doing the actual jobs that keep everything in motion have been there since they were teens and many of the older guys sitting around trading stories have retired from those jobs after being there since they were teens.
The on site blacksmith, there to repair tools as they break,can also be commissioned to build you custom cupboard handles, candle sticks,garden sculptures or driveway gates and with a fine artists touch. There is a spacious picnic area where you can buy drinks to go with your own picnic or purchase chili dogs, hamburgers, veggie burgers and the like. Many large families were there and I could well imagine every member, from the 2 year olds to the grandparents, being fascinated by either the information or the enormous machines. Andrea Cleall
