This nine-foot band saw was among the largest log saws ever used in the sawmill industry, weighing over 38,000 pounds and carrying a blade more than 56 feet long. It cut Douglas Fir and Ponderosa Pine logs up to ten feet in diameter and fifty-six feet in length, with the lumber from a single giant log enough to build two houses of about 1,500 square feet. Manufactured by the Filer & Stowell Company in 1900 and put into service by the Champion Lumber Company in Libby, Montana, it spent 82 years cutting lumber that was loaded onto trains and shipped into the growing United States housing market. It was retired in 1982 when the mill was rebuilt to cut smaller logs, but despite its age it remained in sound working condition.
