The Water-Powered Sawmill According to Sam Gilbert, the sawmill
owned by “Old Averill” was probably the first in the area. When
he arrived at Watervale in 1854, Harrison Averill was operating
a... “...sawmill located on the creek connecting the two Herring
Lakes, about forty or fifty rods from its mouth at Lower
Herring. … It was a waterpower mill of the single muley type (an
up-and-down saw), and had a capacity of 7,000 feet of pine
lumber in twelve hours. As there was never a dearth of water,
the mill was run day and night, two men being a full force and
short shifts made. The big pines were cut on the hills north of
Upper Herring Lake, hauled to the water and floated down the
creek to the mill. From other directions they must have been
hauled in with teams." Each section in the map is a square mile.
A rod is 16.5 feet, so as John Howard described it, "forty to
fifty rods" from the creek's mouth at Lower Herring Lake is 660
to 825 feet, which is a little over 1/7 mile. This would place
the sawmill today abo