At Arcadia, flumes and dams diverted water and formed holding ponds for raw materials like logs. The earth and stone dam was approximately 15 foot high, between 30 and 120 feet wide, and about 1200 feet long, and it withstood the pressure of the 60 acre mill pond it created. The dam formed a head of water that was channeled through a ditch called a millrace to the mill building below. Trash rails filtered out water-borne debris like logs and limbs as water entered the sluiceway, the final passage to the mill, and millers opened or closed a sluice gate to control water flow. The water struck the mill’s water wheel and then returned to Pond Creek through a tailrace channel. A tunnel dug around the mill helped prevent flooding and damage to the machinery, and slabs of ironstone lining the creek’s curve helped slow erosion and flood damage. By 1835, the mill was producing over 250,000 board feet of lumber, and by the end of the decade it was shipping at least 900,000 board feet each year. Logs were dragged up an incline through one end of the sawmill and placed on a horizontal bed or carriage that moved them into the saw, where they were cut into two or more pieces and could be repositioned for additional cuts. The saws operated at approximately 100-130 strokes per minute, and logs moved through the frame at approximately two feet per minute. A typical sawmill used a crank or shaft to power a wooden rectangular frame or sash containing a vertically placed saw, with the frame moving up and down within a larger fixed frame, and adding two or more saws created more efficient groupings called gang saws.