Yankee Ingenuity Rules at Sawmill Park

The October harvest in Ledyard is more than apples and pumpkins. On weekends at Sawmill Park off of Iron Street, the last up-down sawmill in Connecticut is at work again, harnessing waterpower to cut lumber with its large vertical blade.

For those looking to see some history in action, the sawmill is impressive. Inside the wooden building, antiquated machinery drives the sharp-toothed, six-foot blade down and up, down and up, as lengths of tree trunk fed into the saw are converted to lumber. 

Built by Israel Brown in the 1870s, Ledyard's sawmill is unique among its kind, not only because it is water-powered, but because it uses a vertical rather than a circular blade. In the 19th century, before the industrial revolution was in full swing, New England had thousands of vertical sawmills. These, however, were steadily replaced by mills that used more efficient circular blades. 

Extra-wide boards

Today, there are only four of these older mills in the Northeast, including one each in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Though perhaps less efficient than their circular saw successors, up-down sawmills were able to produce the extra-wide boards typically used by Colonial-era carpenters and craftsmen for everything from floors to tabletops. 

Ledyard purchased the mill site in 1966 and volunteers rebuilt the mill itself from the top down.

The machinery works when water flowing out of the tranquil Sawmill Pond drops into a reservoir in the sawmill's basement. Here it turns a turbine that connects to the machinery, using gears and cranks. When the pond is full and the water moving at its fastest, the blade cuts up and down 100 times in a minute.

But waterpower is only part of what keeps the sawmill going. At least 10 volunteers come out on weekends to cut wood and load it into the machinery. 

Local history enthusiast Steve Tomicek is a wealth of information about the mill. He has been volunteering there since 1985, when he brought some timber from his property to be cut. On a recent weekend he showed off some of the different features inside. These include not only the lumber mill, but also a water-powered grist mill for grinding flour, a shingle mill (now powered by gas) and a circular mill. 

Lumber comes from local donors and from Town of Ledyard arborists. Funding for the mill comes from the Ledyard Historical Society, but as Tomicek says, "It takes more muscle than money." For example, when the building needed repairs recently, it used its own lumber to do the job. 

The mill also ships boards to other local historical sites such as Ledyard's Nathan Lester House, the Hempsted house in New London and most recently, Groton's Fort Griswold, which received gun mounts that had been cut at the sawmill for its cannons.

Tomicek is optimistic about the mill's future. The volunteers have plans to reconstruct the ice-house that was originally on the property.  The building will hold ice that the volunteers will cut out of the pond, providing refrigeration in the summer months. The old ice-cutting equipment is already inside the sawmill, waiting to be used. Storing ice also requires sawdust as insulation, which is not in short supply at the mill.

Blacksmith Shop

While at the up-down sawmill, it is worthwhile to stop by the blacksmith's building around back.  During a recent visit, two volunteers, Ryan and Scott, were busy making hooks for the mill.  The coals in the forge glowed a dull red—the flames would leap up when a crank was turned, supplying the fire with oxygen. 

Scott described the work as a lot of fun. "It's satisfying to take something that costs nothing and turn it into something useful," he said, referring to the scraps of cast-off metal with which he works. 

He used tongs to remove a bright orange piece of metal out of the coals and put it onto an anvil, where he carefully shaped it with a hammer. Forging is a delicate work because the metal needs to be hot enough to bend, but not so hot that it burns and starts to crumble. 

How often does that happen? "All the time," Scott said.

Another interesting feature of sawmill park is its root cellar, a man-made vault in the hillside, measuring about four feet high and 20 feet long. The cellar was used by early residents to store produce, such as potatoes and vegetables. 

The opening of the cellar is perfectly aligned so that the sun shines in during the equinox and illuminates the quartz stones in the rear. For Tomicek, this suggests the cellar originally had been built by Native Americans who used the structure for ceremonies.

Visitors to Sawmill Park can fish or picnic alongside the scenic pond, hike the trails or enjoy the swing-sets and other playground equipment. The park stays open weekly from sunrise to sunset. 

The mill itself is open for free tours on Saturdays from 1 to 4 p.m. during the months of April and May and October and November. Local schools can also call the Ledyard Historical Society to arrange field trips to the mill during weekdays.