B.R. COOPER'S POWERED SAWMILL (site)
In 1834 there wasn't anything. Even California being a state was twenty years away. The only town was a small gathering called Sonoma that was a part of the mission that had come up from Mexico. Over here near this river where Cooper was building a water powered sawmill, there were no roads, no trains, no towns. Maybe a few poor wilderness people lived around but there was no state, no county. It was still a large nothing place that belonged to Native Americans and they didn't live around this area.
But 1834 was also the year Mariano Vallejo arrived in Sonoma with instructions to establish a stronger presence on Mexico’s Northern Frontier. Part of the government’s plan was to found a new settlement, Tahuiyami, as a buffer against the Russians, who were expanding their colony inland. The settlement’s chosen site was just a mile from the mill. The sawmill was intended to supply lumber for the fort of Tahuiyumi. The square shown on the map above was a grant for the mill to built on called El Molino (The Mill), also known as Terreno Prentendido, the Intended Land.
Up until the 1830s, California’s lumber, what little there was, was made by hand with saws or ax similar adzes. At Cooper’s Mill, the waters of Mill Creek (Mark West Creek) turned a wheel that powered a vertical saw blade that could do the work of 10 men.
While a few buildings were constructed, Tahuiyumi was abandoned within a year, and Cooper’s Mill was destroyed by a flood in 1841.
But 1834 was also the year Mariano Vallejo arrived in Sonoma with instructions to establish a stronger presence on Mexico’s Northern Frontier. Part of the government’s plan was to found a new settlement, Tahuiyami, as a buffer against the Russians, who were expanding their colony inland. The settlement’s chosen site was just a mile from the mill. The sawmill was intended to supply lumber for the fort of Tahuiyumi. The square shown on the map above was a grant for the mill to built on called El Molino (The Mill), also known as Terreno Prentendido, the Intended Land.
Up until the 1830s, California’s lumber, what little there was, was made by hand with saws or ax similar adzes. At Cooper’s Mill, the waters of Mill Creek (Mark West Creek) turned a wheel that powered a vertical saw blade that could do the work of 10 men.
While a few buildings were constructed, Tahuiyumi was abandoned within a year, and Cooper’s Mill was destroyed by a flood in 1841.
A crude photograph has here been enhanced to show the original mill's design.
Located near Mirabel Park.
Pictured: Norman Livermore and C. Raymond Clar
Pictured: Norman Livermore and C. Raymond Clar