Sawmill Creek
Named on an 1891 map for the sawmill that was located on this creek. There is no obvious remaining evidence of the old sawmill. Jack James remembers seeing the remnant of the long abandoned cutting pit when we was teenager some seventy years ago. Jack recalls that the sawmill was located in the small flat where Sawmill Creek road junctions with the ridge road.
The name Sawmill Creek reflects the historical presents of a pit-sawmill that was constructed here in early 1858. Here a deep pit was dug into the earth and a large pit saw, operated by two people was used to rip timbers into manageable pieces needed by the miners to crib their tunnels and shafts. A pit saw was 8-10 feet long two-handled saw used to rip a log lengthwise into planks. The pit saw was operated jointly by a person standing above the log and another in a pit underneath. The senior sawyer stood on the scaffold and held the pit saw by the tiller, a handle that enabled him to guide the saw. At the other end of the saw, the junior sawyer stood below the timber. Broad axes were also used to make large 8x8 and 6x6 beams out of logs.
According to Elliott & Moore in 1881 this area was a "forest of pines and cedars, some trees measuring five and six feet in diameter." Hand-loggers used axes and long crosscut saws, also called "misery whips" to fall large trees. This process could take a day or more, and depending on how the tree fell, it could take several more days of jacking, levering, and hauling to get logs to the mill.
The bark was removed by axes in a one to two foot band completely around the tree in the area where the tree was to be cut. Trees were then notched with an axe and cut down with axes and cross cut saws. The fallen trees were limbed and cut into shorter, more manageable sections before being skidded to the sawmill by horses or oxen.
Jack James' grandfather had a cabin in the area that built from lumber cut at this saw mill. Jack remembers dismantling that cabin and using its lumber to built another cabin that still stands near his home on Los Gatos Creek.
