White County Officials exploring options to help restore the historic Rowland Sawmill in Quebeck.
County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson said the mill is a big part of the county’s history as it first got its steam engine in the 1920s and was active through major events like the Great Depression and World War II. Robinson said the restoration effort is entirely community-driven as there is currently no support from the state or external organizations.
“The people that live in that area have got together, they did, had fundraisers,” Robinson said. “They raised about $10,000 there out of that community to help get some sort of restoration going there and the county is looking to do what they can to help with that.”
Robinson said the county is exploring how the fundraising money could be used to help with restoration. Robinson said the mill is not working right now but he thinks it would not take much to get the mill operational again.
“It was a pretty unique operation,” Robinson said. “It was kind of self-contained. They would run, obviously it was a boiler, and they would burn sawdust that was made by cutting the wood to kind of feed itself.”
Robinson said sawmills powered by steam engines are very rare to see in the Southeast region and throughout the nation. Robinson said the property was donated to the county’s heritage museum a couple years ago in hopes that the site could be restored.
“Some of the people in the community thought that ($10,000) was to go towards the restoration, some thought it was to go towards upkeep of the property, maintenance, mowing, keeping it cleared off and looking good,” Robinson said. “Either way, both of them are good things for the property. So that was the only kind of, I would say would be miscommunication, was what exactly was the use of that money: was it to restore it or was it for upkeep?”
Robinson said there is no timeline in place for how long the project will take.
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