Series MS-3062 - Plans and drawings

Series is the fouth of four series in the Chemainus Sawmill fonds. The plans and drawings series contains a comprehensive selection of sawmill schematics pertaining to equipment, operation and production at the Chemainus sawmill. Also included are plans for logging camps in the Nanaimo lakes regions detailing workers' lodgings and facilities, conceptual drawings of the plant's production flow, as well as housing plans and plans for recreational facilities in the townsite of Chemainus, including a town theatre. A small quantity of Chemainus townsite plans date from 1923, before the sawmill fire. The dates of these records can be broadly categorized into three eras: 1924-1943, 1944-1948, and 1949 onward. The original numbering of this series suggests that it was initially created during the Victoria Lumber and Manufacturing sawmill rebuild of 1924-1925, and then modified by the Victoria Lumber Company after being purchased in 1944. Some of the plans were originally folded, stored in numbered folders and inter-filed as part of the General files sub-series. They have been separated and are ordered in numerical sequence. Groups of plans are kept together, such as for a type of machine, a production sequence, or an outside engine's plan set. The numbering system dates from the 1940s and makes extensive reuse of drawings from the sawmill reconstruction of the 1920s. Drawings originating from the 1920s rebuild are most represented between the numbers 1500 and 1899. Plans from 2200-7964 date largely from 1949 onward, and are limited in number. A considerable number of plans are missing from across the numerical sequence. Weyerhaeuser provided most of the schematics for the reconstruction of the mill in 1924-1925 and these are the foundation of this series. Other plans in the series originate from U.S. and Canadian engineering and machining companies. These include the Canadian SKF Company, Canadian Sumner Iron Works, Canadian Westinghouse, Diamond Iron Works, Moore Dry Kiln Company, P. B. Yates Machine Company, Reliance Motor and Machine Works, Pacific Car Foundry, Vancouver Engineering Works, Victoria Machinery Depot, Wickes Boiler Company, and Yarrows Ltd of Esquimalt.