Ledyard Up-down Sawmill

Ledyard Up-down Sawmill Experience an operating 19th century water-powered sawmill in Ledyard, Connecticut. Restored to operating condition in the 1970s and now staffed by volunteers.

Open for visitors Saturdays 1:00 - 4:00 pm in April/May and October/November. The historic Ledyard Up-Down Sawmill is a water-powered sash-type sawmill located on the original site on Lee’s Brook in Ledyard, Connecticut. We are open to the public on Saturday afternoons 1:00-4:00 in April and May, and October and November for sawing and blacksmithing demonstrations. The Ledyard Up-Down Sawmill is owned by the town of Ledyard, CT and is administered by the Ledyard Historic District Commission.

One of my favorite things about summer at the mill is viewing the wildlife in the pond and around Sawmill Park. The park...
08/06/2026

One of my favorite things about summer at the mill is viewing the wildlife in the pond and around Sawmill Park. The park is often busy, but when it’s quiet there’s a variety of animal life to be seen.
(Look for the other bird in the photo with the Great Blue Heron.)

08/04/2026

Midsummer 2026 in southern New England has been very rainy. Near record amounts of rain in July and another 4-5” yesterday at the Ledyard Up-Down Sawmill. The water continued to rise after this video was shot, and, in fact, the dam overtopped.
Fortunately no damage to the dam or mill itself.
A reminder that this is part of the life of a water-powered mill. Historically, flood damage was one of the most common reasons so few 19th century New England mills have survived.

05/01/2026

This historic sawmill, like many other small mills in New England, switched from a wood water wheel to a cast iron water turbine in the mid-1800s mill.
As the century moved on, steam engines became more and more common.

We still use the original 1870s Tyler water turbine - we’ll show more on the Tyler turbine in upcoming posts.

www.ledyardsawmill.org

Had a fine day sawing last Saturday. We finished a pine log. Feel very privileged to volunteer here at the historic mill...
04/21/2026

Had a fine day sawing last Saturday. We finished a pine log. Feel very privileged to volunteer here at the historic mill.

04/17/2026

Love watching the historic sawmill going through logs! We’ll be sawing Saturday afternoons in April and May.

04/15/2026

We’re lucky enough to have a handful of photos that show the mill in the 1920s and 1930s. It’s fun to compare these to the current restored mill.

Pretty sure that mill owner Harry Main was faking a pose in the last photo in the reel. We don’t think the mill was operating in 1938.

Info on the inset historical photos in the comments.

More on the history of the mill on our website:
https://www.ledyardsawmill.org/history

Ledyard Historical Society

04/13/2026

Continued sawing pine boards on Saturday on a very pleasant spring day. Plenty of water and the pine saws pretty easy.

We’re sawing for demonstration, not production, so we set the turbine gate for a relatively slow sawing rate. And we have the log carriage feed adjusted for the smallest advance (1/8”). This cut took 12-13 minutes, but the saw could be set up to easily work 4-5 times faster.

04/10/2026

Spring in southern New England means we’re open for sawing demonstrations on the water-powered Ledyard Up-Down Sawmill Saturdays 1-4 pm in April and May.

www.ledyardsawmill.org

04/07/2026

For the start of spring visitor season last Saturday, we set up a pine log to saw some 11” boards. Definitely not a prime log, but we’ll get a few useful boards from it, and like all the other logs we saw, it will provide a great demonstration of how this old sawmill technology was used.

www.ledyardsawmill.org


04/06/2026

Beautiful day for the start of spring 2026 visitor season at the water-powered Ledyard Up-Down Sawmill.

Open for sawing demonstrations Saturdays 1-4 pm in April and May.

www.ledyardsawmill.org

Address

172 Iron Street
Ledyard, CT
06339

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