Book Notes

(from the California HISTORIAN)

Tales from the Blue Ox:
A Hands-On Manual of Traditional Skills from
the Blue Ox Millworks Historic Park

By Dan Brett

Astragal Press, Mendham, New Jersey, 2006
232 pages, softcover, $29.95, ISBN 1-931626-16-2

Reviewed by Bill Hole
Professor of Construction and Historic Preservation
College of the Redwoods, Eureka

Eric and Vivianna Hollenbeck have spent over 30 years to develop a lifestyle based on their belief and passion to teach people, with hands on experience, traditional building trades. Eric has acquired historic tools and built traditional tools in the Blue Ox shop while giving public tours of this evolving “working” museum. What started in 1904 as the electric power company for Eureka’s trolley cars has been rehabilitated into a marvelous local treasure, Blue Ox Historic Millworks, which is now a destination point for curious travelers.

One example of earlier machines is the “molder,” over 100 years old, which Eric still uses to cut authentic redwood gutter stock. It has original cutters, and Eric can also use it in the custom fabricating of knives. Rare are his old-school craft skills and the remarkable tools in this functioning workshop. Visitors watch Eric fire up the 52-inch “Buzz Saw” that rips a log lengthwise into boards. By touching the real processes and seeing the real tools, Eric’s gift to you is a lifelong understanding and appreciation of milling.

Tales from the Blue Ox is a basic hands-on manual of traditional skills, historic tools and recipes from the Blue Ox Millworks Historic Park. Dan Brett, the author and illustrator, dovetails the common interests in traditional craft skills with the marvelous experience of the Blue Ox. Dan not only delightfully engages you with Eric’s colorful stories but presents his own amazingly accurate lifelike sketches to bring the stories into a three-dimensional reality.

The hand tools, early hand-powered machines, belt-driven machines, traditional arts, recipes and plans used to create all the historic fabric we see in our old buildings can make sense best when we touch them first hand. Reading this book will probably change future vacation plans so you can experience history and this labor of love for yourself.

Meanwhile, be sure to find your own copy of this book and enjoy the virtual tour. I might caution you, traditional hands-on craft work is very captivating. When you work around historic property and become aware of the lost building arts, you will likely develop a strong curiosity compelling you to, in some way, participate. Maybe the appreciation will drive you — maybe the curious self will drive you to visit the Blue Ox Historic Millwork and School in Eureka.

Tales from the Blue Ox: A Hands-On Manual of Traditional Skills from the Blue Ox Millworks Historic Park will inspire even the casual reader to keep this book as a valuable addition to his/her reference library.