When someone visits a museum, they expect to see things from the past. That will be the case at the Granite Falls Historical Museum in June, but the past will correspond with the present.
Miller Shingle Co. in Granite Falls is donating a 1916 shingle-cutting saw to the museum. Similar cutting machines are still in use at Miller Shingle.
Think about the marvel of a type of machine, made in 1916, that still works in industry. I don’t mean an antique jalopy that is rolled out of the garage on summer weekends. These shingle cutters make quick work of cedar all day long at the Granite Falls company, just as they did 88 years ago.
Amazing.
You can’t see the machine until the museum reopens the first Sunday in June at 108 E. Union St. Its hours will be 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays through October.
Granite Falls Historical Society board member Fred Cruger, 55, met with the owners of the shingle company to suggest they donate equipment to the museum.
"While many folks in the Northwest realize that shingles were a major business in the early days of this area, few people realize how scarce shingle mills have become," Cruger said. "Even fewer have actually seen the inside of a working shingle mill."
At Miller Shingle, it was remarkable to see machines stamped "1916" whirling along. Ambidextrous sawyers grabbed fresh cut shingles with their left hands while trimming shingle edges with their right.
It was noisy, dangerous and I can’t imagine doing their jobs. I can’t believe sawyer Mike Green had all his fingers. The best part of the planned museum display is a video showing the machinery in action.
Bruce Miller Sr. bought the Granite Falls property after serving in World War II. His son, Bruce Miller II, is president of the company. Barry Miller, his brother, is vice president. Bruce Miller III is the director of marketing and sales.
The Millers talked about using salvaged wood for their operation. They said there is a good market for their roofing and siding products. Bruce Miller II said they were looking forward to donating the equipment to save a piece of history for Granite Falls.
I sensed their pride as they described how the family business grew from a one-horse shingle mill.
Their 1916 cutting equipment was the backbone of the operation. Everett Public Library historian David Dilgard said the machinery was built at Sumner Iron Works, located on the far side of the river at the foot of Everett Avenue, but moved to Lowell after a disastrous 1913 fire.
"Sumner produced a variety of industrial equipment, steam boilers, log-carriage systems for lumber mills, and a variety of saw rigs, including knee-bolters and uprights, like the one Granite Falls is getting," Dilgard said. "In fact, the Sumner upright shingle machine was pretty much the state-of-the-art device for sawing shingles in the Pacific Northwest early in the 20th Century."
Dilgard said actually there wasn’t much art to the machines themselves.
"The art involved cutting shingles at a terrifying pace without losing fingers or hands," he said. "Even the best sawyers occasionally made mistakes. And the machines were unforgiving. You could usually identify a shingle weaver by the digits he didn’t have."
Visitors to the Granite Falls Historical Museum will learn about the efficiency, durability and danger of the machines. Retired dentist Ted Peddycord, president of the historical society, said the museum preserves the past for all ages. Pictures of Sumner Iron Works will be shown at the shingle display.
Museum displays are as intriguing as their supporters. The historical society’s Cruger, who helped restore a 1904 curved dash Oldsmobile for a Granite Falls display, and his wife, Penny, own a 1912 Abbott-Detroit and belongs to the Skagit-Snohomish Region of the Horseless Carriage Club of America. Cruger is a program manager for Agilent Technologies.
He took the time to hook up the museum with Miller Shingle.
"I met with the Millers to convince them to donate an actual shingle-cutting machine," Cruger said. "Over the years, they’ve managed to free up a couple machines that now stand unused. Sumner machines were considered to be the Cadillac of shingle cutters, and the machines were made well enough to have lasted the better part of a century."
There is a big job ahead to get the 1916 machine in place. As big as two kitchen tables, but a whole lot heavier, parts will be moved in pieces from a shed at Miller Shingle.
"The one going to the museum is disassembled and will require clean up, sandblasting, painting and reassembly," Cruger said. "How do I get myself involved in theses things?"
Because he understands the importance of preserving history.
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.
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