292 - Saw Mill, Flour Mill, and Blacksmith Shop

Frontier communities depended on certain trades to support and maintain their livelihood. Blacksmith shops, sawmills, and flour mills were critical to homesteaders.

A common practice before the Industrial Revolution, blacksmithing is the art of forging metal to make objects such as hinges, horseshoes, nails, hammers, and more. Most developing communities had their own blacksmith shop, including towns on the northern plains. The blacksmith shop here contains a working forge donated by the Anton Danda family. The forge was a necessary fixture in shops as blacksmiths used it to heat and shape metals, often with a hammer or an anvil, into horseshoes and tractor parts. Many people depended on blacksmiths as they were also responsible for making tools and repairing broken equipment from their hot and dark shops. The shop at Stump Lake Historical Village displays a variety of tools used for blacksmithing. One of those tools is a turning lathe which was provided by Larry Hagen. The lathe was used for shaping pieces of metal for specific uses, allowing the smith to drill, sand, cut, and knurl metal. Over the years, like many trades of long ago, the blacksmithing industry has shifted from a necessary skill to more of an artisanal craft.

Like the blacksmith shop, a sawmill was an important addition to communities, providing a quicker way to cut boards into lumber. Prior to the invention of the sawmill, boards were made manually, most commonly hand sawn by two men using a whipsaw. The Howell No. 2 Sawmill here was found near the Sheyenne River and restored in 2003. In 2020, a new sawmill building was constructed to house the Case steam tractor that operates the sawmill and to stabilize the mill against North Dakota winters. This sawmill provided the rough cut lumber used on the interior walls of the blacksmith shop.

Flour mills were of great importance as they supplied one of man’s basic needs, flour. The Ulberg Flour Mill was built near Northwood and served area farmers who brought wheat to the mill. Once milled, they would leave the mill with Ulberg Pride flour, a staple in homes and kitchens during that time. The mill here contains several grain cleaners, a courier, sifter, bagging equipment, and elevators to move grain and flour. All was powered by a stationary engine connected to line shafts. The actual flour mill here is a Midget Marvel Mill that was built by the Anglo-American Mill Company, who, at the time, claimed to be the largest flour milling company in the world. This mill, according to the company, was a simple mill, easy to understand, and largely automatic in its operation, making it a blessing to those that relied on it.

Tucked behind the flour mill is the Quanbeck garage, home of the Reiten trip plow. This handy invention was the brainchild of Sherman Quanbeck of McVille, ND in 1959. The trip mechanism enabled the plow to trip over rocks in the field without the operator having to get off the tractor to reset the plow, saving the farmer precious time. The plow was so special that it won several awards at a show at the Lemmington Hotel in Minneapolis, MN in 1960. The plow, with its signature light green color and orange accents, was first manufactured at Reiten’s in Cooperstown.

Storing a necessary commodity, coal sheds were once a common sight, often next to railroads. This coal shed was donated by Cenex Harvest States Elevator of McVille in 1999. Arriving by train, coal was then hand shoveled into separate storage bins according to type: lump lignite, soft and hard coal briquettes, and stoker coal. This was hard, dusty labor, but necessary as people would purchase their heating coal here.

With the advancement of technology, much has changed in manufacturing, equipment, and processing. These buildings, as well as the equipment they hold, remind us of the humble beginnings of many things taken for granted in our modern world.