Weekend Steam

The March-April 1964 issue of The Iron Men Album-Magazine has a very nice photo and letter from Roy Mitchell of Council Bluffs, Iowa. Mr. Mitchell provides some very good information in his letter. " This picture was taken in 1904 (I was 14 at the time - that is me on the engine ) in the heart of the Ozarks about 14 miles from Springfield, MO. The engine is a 16 HP Gaar Scott and was about 6 years old at that time and was always kept in the best of order....The last time I saw this engine was in 1919 and it was still going strong - they were threshing with it.... I have had the Gaar Scott in some bad places, have had to ford rivers where bridges unsafe, drove into the water with full head of steam, 125 pounds pressure and out on the other side with no fire and perhaps 50 pounds steam but the engine would never fail me."

That is a fascinating glimpse of the good old days. This engine would have produced about 50 horsepower on the belt, and would have been marginal for pulling a sawmill on large logs, but its performance would have also depended on the sawyer's skill in sharpening, and sawmill setup and maintenance. I have been debating the species of the logs being processed in the photo. The warty appearance of the bark has me thinking hackberry, but the prominent grain exposed on the log has me thinking that ash is a possibility. Comments from anyone familiar with bark patterns in the Springfield, MO area are welcome.

A Gaar Scott engine very similar to the Mr. Mitchell's can be seen at Old Threshers at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Here is a shot of the water tank, which sits in front of the smokestack.