Sturgeon’s Mill fires up steam engines in Sonoma County

After slumbering for decades, Big Willy, the 110-year-old steam “donkey” at west county’s historic Sturgeon’s Steam Saw Mill, has been roused from its long sleep and will be huffing and puffing this month at two open houses.

Considered one of the last great mills of its kind, Sturgeon’s steam driven mill was built to process redwood lumber on the Korbel property near the Russian River and in 1913 was dismantled and moved to Sonoma County. It remains in a redwood canyon between Sebastopol and Graton, serving as a museum to the county’s lumbering history.

“People who have been coming out to the mill for years have always asked me if we could get the steam donkey to work again,” said Wes Brubacher, who headed the crew of volunteers who restored the 1905 Willamette Iron and Steel Co. of Portland, Ore.

In those days the donkeys harnessed the power of steam to pull whole redwood trees out of the forests with their giant steel cables, replacing teams of oxen and draft horses. Donkeys using “skid roads” (rail roads without rails) would pull the logs from the logging site to the mill, sometimes as far as a mile away.

Sturgeon’s Mill received its donkey about 12 years ago, thanks to Steve Parmeter of the well-known lumbering family in Cazadero, but Brubacher was wary about restoring it because of its strength.

“Any pressure vessel that operates on 15 pounds per square inch has to be certified by the state. I insisted that we have it certified,” he said.

The restoration process has taken three and half years to complete, from finding parts to having large steam pipes fitted to tracking the history of the donkey to learning just how it had been made originally.

Willamette Iron and Steel Co. opened for business in 1865, first building steam engines for boats, then branching into logging equipment. It closed 25 years ago, and somehow lost the records for years between the ‘30s and ‘50s. Fortunately the records for Donkey #156, Big Willy, were discovered in a museum.

“John Taubeneck, an authority on Willamette I & S machinery, was able to trace it down by its serial number and said it is the oldest hot tube donkey known,” Brubacher said. “We know it worked on the Navarro River in Mendocino.”

There is a fire box fueled by wood at the base of the donkey. The water chamber above it has about 120 tubes carrying the heat as a central chimney serves the wood fire. As the water heats and creates steam, the pressure builds and is fed via steam pipes to the great pistons on either side that resemble the front wheels of a steam locomotive. Those drivers turn the drum that holds the big cable.

“You have to think of it as a giant pressure cooker,” said Brubacher. “All the main steam piping had to be replaced. Jeff and Don Milerick helped bend the pipes. We had our first hydrostatic test and discovered some tiny leaks, so we rerolled the pipes.”

The first real test run was Aug. 1, and all the volunteers turned out to see Big Willy in action. With about a cord of wood and three to four hours, they were able to heat 500 gallons enough to power Big Willy and blow its whistle in triumph.

So Sturgeon’s Saw Mill, which has always impressed crowds with the power of 19th century technology, has a new attraction.

The wood is stacked, and everyone who worked so hard is eager to show Big Willy off from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sept. 19 and 20, and again Oct. 10 and 11 at 2150 Green Hill Road, between Sebastopol and Graton. It’s free.

For a map, visit sturgeonsmill.com.

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the dates of Sturgeon’s open house, which begins Sept. 19 and 20. This story has been updated to correct the error.