I hate to admit it but I'm starting to fall behind in posting my photos that I took over a week ago at the Southern Forest Heritage Museum in Longleaf, Louisiana. My first two posts focused on two of the old steam locomotives on the property and they have gained a ton of positive responses.
I want to thank all of you for all the kind words.
Unfortunately I took way too many photographs that day (can you take too many photographs?) and creating a megapost featuring all of them would be simply out of the question. No one could really enjoy them that way. So I have opted to break them up by location.
Today I am posting the photos I took at the old Planer Mill.
Here is the history of the Planer Mill from the Southern Forest Heritage Museum website:
The planer mill, built in 1910 by the Crowell & Spencer Lumber Company, produced finished lumber and various moldings. The finished lumber was planed to remove the rough cut that the sawmill left giving the smooth lumber we are familiar with today. They also had various milling machines that produced the decorative trim used in homes. The purpose of the planer mill was to produce finished lumber and millwork out of rough dry lumber. The mill is one of the oldest buildings on the site. The building is large and built of very heavy timbers providing strength in case of fire. By using large timbers, the building would not collapse unless the fire burned for a long time. Specialized products including delicate moldings, beaded sheathing, and tongue-and-grove flooring were milled here.
Adjacent to the planer mill is its power plant. The facility hosted three boilers that burned wood waste from the planter mill to generate steam that powered the giant engine. Steam from the boilers was piped to a large Corliss steam engine that powered a 120-foot shaft that extended under the planer mill. All equipment was powered by belts extending up from that shaft. The engine powered a 12-foot diameter flywheel with a 4-foot race.
Here are the rest of the photos taken in and around the mill:
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