Crook County HS adds sawmill to students’ learning tools

Classes are coming to an end this week, but Crook County High School just announced a new addition to one of its Career & Technical Education (CTE) programs: a sawmill.

A Lucas Radial Sawmill was recently delivered to the high school and students already put it to the test. The sawmill can handle logs up to six feet in diameter and 20 feet long. It will cut dimensional lumber all the way up to 8.5 inches.

CCHS Natural Resource teacher Lisa Keown said she’s talked with both the high school and middle school shop classes, offering their services to provide lumber.

“I’m extremely excited to give students real-life experience and take projects from the forest and follow that wood all the way through the finished project,” explained Keown.

Once the wood is cut to dimension, the lumber can be used for a variety of wood-related projects in local shop classes.

Bret Michalski, Forestry Resources Technology professor at Central Oregon Community College, spent some time showing Kewon and her students how to set up and operate the sawmill. They said the students had a blast cutting their first pieces of lumber.

“This is another example of how CCHS is working to enhance our CTE programs and make sure our students get to work with their hands and learn valuable life skills,” said Ryan Cochran, the new CTE coordinator for CCHS.