Mill Model is Labor of Love

WAITSBURG – Waitsburg resident Kevin Blair and longtime friend Paul Baumgart, of Hayden, Ida., have spent the last seven months working on a detailed replica of Wait's Mill. The partially completed model will be on display behind the Wilson-Phillips House museum following Saturday's Celebration Days parade.

Blair (who wants no recognition and required major prodding before he would allow his name to be used) has traveled to Hayden regularly since November, to work with Baumgarten on the mill replica. Baumgarten has been creating hand-crafted miniature Old West buildings for years and built one ghost town that took him 18 years and 8,000 hours to build. Baumgarten is the nephew of Elmo Tuttle who operated a blacksmith's shop in Waitsburg in the 1940s and '50s.

Blair said he was talking with Historical Society member Jeff Broom when the idea to build the replica of Wait's Mill was born. "I think the plan was that it would fit on a card table, but it got a little out-of-hand," said Blair. The model was built on an 8' square base, but that didn't include the turbine house, millrace and landscaping that will be added later.

Rod Baker came to the rescue and built a custom 16' by 16' house, complete with a hip roof matching the Wilson-Phillips House, to house and display the model. The building is in the backyard of the W-P House and has carriage doors that can be opened to display the model during museum hours and for special events like this weekend's sesquicentennial celebration. A timeline, with pictures, will run along the walls inside the display.

Wait's Mill, also known as the Preston-Shaffer Mill, was located at Bolles and Millrace roads in what will be dedicated as Wait's Mill Park on Sunday. The mill remained operational until 1957 and was placed on the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation's "Most Endangered Historic Properties List" in 2005. The city was preparing to restore the building when it caught fire in the middle of the night on Sept. 7, 2009 and burned to the ground.

Blair said the replica is intended to represent the mill that gave the city its name, as it would have looked shortly after it was built in 1865. He and Baumgarten used a combination of photographs and artist sketches to re-create the building. "It was a little tricky because the sketches and the building didn't always match up. We do have the floor plan from when the city was planning the remodel, though," Blair said.

Recycled cedar fencing "taken through about 12 different steps" was cut to simulate the building's lap siding and will be painted white or grey when the piece is finished. Shingles were made from two-by-eights that were cross-sectioned and formed into 8" shingle strips that will be stained and glued to the roof.

The tall center section, with its 12 distinctive cupolas, is still under construction. This section, where the actual mill was located, will stand about 36" to 38 inches from the ground, when finished. The model sits off the floor and the area between the floor and building will be landscaped to look like the original hillside surrounding the mill. A turbine house and flume still need to be added to the structure.

When Blair mentioned that he was looking for a CNC router to cut the windows, Historical Society member Tom Baker put him in touch with SEA-TECH Skills Center in Walla Walla. Students in Dennis DeBroeck's Digital Media Technology class accepted the project and are using the school's 3-D printer to create windows from plastic.

Blair and Baumgarten had hoped for the model to be completed in time for the city's sesquicentennial "but life got in the way." Blair said Baumgarten's son got hurt, which put a gap in the production. But Blair looks forward to completing the project that he hopes will be dedicated to his late wife Carol (Harris) Blair and her parents Gus and Evelyn Harris.

"It's a gift to the town. This little place has given me an awful lot over the years and this was one way I could give back," said Blair.