In 2000, David and Barbara Olson donated the sawmill to the Sister Bay Historical Society. Barbara Olson is the granddaughter of Hjalmar R. Holand, the noted Door County historian and author, who homesteaded in what became Peninsula State Park. Although the sawmill was likely purchased new around 1913 by Albert E. Doolittle, the first superintendent of Peninsula State Park to provide lumber for the new park, it is known that Holand acquired the sawmill after the park bought up his property and he moved across the road from the new park.
SAWMILL
The sawmill at the Corner of the Past was manufactured by the American Sawmill Manufacturing Company of Hackettstown, New Jersey. It is the company’s “Standard Saw Mill.” It is a “left hand mill” because the saw is to the sawyer’s left and runs toward him.