Editor’s Note: This is the fifth and final installment of a series of Equipment World videos from November 1, 2024, day one of the 100-Plus Years of Progress show. The show is held each year at “Ederville,” which was named for founder Ken Eder, an avid collector of vintage tractors, construction equipment, trains, among other items.
A longstanding feature at the 100-Plus Years of Progress Show in Carthage, North Carolina, is a sawmill run by an antique Frick Eclipse steam tractor. In the video above, watch it in action as it powers a milling operation sawing logs into lumber, much as it would have done a century ago.
As hot cinders fly around it, the antique steam engine powers a series of belts to drive the saw blade.
Ken Eder, who collected the massive amount of vintage machinery that makes up Ederville, set up the sawmill as a tribute to his father, Martin, who would run the sawmill at the annual show until he passed away in 2015. Martin Eder owned and operated Eder Lumber in New York before he retired in North Carolina. Ken’s brother, Mike, took over the show’s sawmill operation after their father passed. Ken passed away in 2018, and his widow, Patti Eder, continues to run the show, held the first weekend in November.
The Eclipse tractor running the sawmill was manufactured by the Frick Co., which was formed in 1885 in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. Steam engine sales peaked in the early 1990s, and Frick later shifted to refrigeration products. The Frick name lives on today through Johnson Controls’ refrigeration products. Frick was acquired by York International in 1987 and was later sold to Johnson Controls.
To watch the other videos in the Ederville series:
- Awesome Steam Machines! 100-Year-Old Tractors Can Still Plow a Field (Video)
- Watch Classic Caterpillars, International Dozer Show Off at Ederville
- Video: The Wonderful Quirkiness of Antique Hit & Miss Engines
- Watch Vintage Tractors Use Belt Power to Run 1940s Farm Tools at Ederville Show
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