Buckley Old Engine Show

41 Years Under Water

1897 16 H.P. Huber owned by Wilbur and Charlie Volkening
Removed from the Pine River flood waters of Tippy Dam in 1959 after 41 years under water (1918-1959).

The story goes something like this:

In the summer of 1917 a sawyer was hired to cut the flood plane for the soon to be finished dam. The sawyer only having the mill and not the engine, hired a man with a Port-Huron steam engine. He worked the man and machine for a period of time without paying him. He then quit leaving the machine on site. Another man and machine was hired who is believed to be Mr. Hank Krit with his Huber. He also was worked for a period of time without payment. The two men got together and filed a suit against the sawyer, and the courts being slow then as they are now this took some time. The two men went back to check on their engines. Neither had another job to go to and had left their engines on location. To their amazement the sawyer had hired a local farmer with a little knowledge of running steam engines. He had hooked one of them up and was running it on the mill. This of course made the men very angry and so they took their connecting rods off their engines. The owner of the Port-Huron put his rod in what they called a fire house which also held other tools and supplies. Mr. Krit took his rod with him.

Some time latter the men found out that the dam was complete and they had started to back water up in the flood plane. What the men found was the mill gone and the fire house burned to the ground along with the Port-Huron connecting rod. Mr. Krit having his rod with him, reinstalled it and steamed his engine up. The ground was already soft and wet and the water still coming up. They only were able to make it about 100 yards toward shore when five teeth broke off the left bull gear. They were all done moving it under its own power. Several teams of horses tried to move the engine but they just couldn’t. The engine was stripped of all brass fittings and any thing that could be carried by hand and was left to be covered by water and silt.

In the fall of 1959 the dam was in need of repairs, and the water was drawn down 15 feet. With the draw down the top part of the Huber stuck out of the water. A contractor in Wellston, Michigan recovered the engine and kept it for 3-4 years. He then traded it to Cole Brothers, a John Deere dealer in Traverse City, Michigan for a piece of equipment. It was on display under the Cole Brothers’ sign in Traverse City until 1969 when Mr. Tom Graham, of East Jordan, Michigan, seeing potential in what was left of the Huber, which was not much, purchased it. He started to search for parts and after many years found out that another 16 horsepower Huber was being scraped out in Cheboygan, Michigan. Tom bought what ever he could which included a governor and several other parts. Tom also located a good 18 H.P. boiler in a machine shop in Greenville Michigan which he knew would work on the 16 H.P. Huber.

During the Boyne City Polish Festival of 1993 Wilbur and Charlie Volkening approached Tom about buying the Huber. He said that he would be willing to sell it, but that they had better look at what they were getting into. They also saw something in the pile of scrape that was about 100 years old. They bought the engine with a borrowed dollar bill from Glen Segraves, on the platform of the Graham’s family 1921 Baker steam engine during the last thrashing run, on Saturday, of the Polish Festival.

They went the following weekend and finished paying for the engine and started hauling it to Wilbur’s shop in Gaylord, Michigan. It took one long day just to get the rear axle apart so as to fit on their trailer. After 4 trips they finally had it home, but what did they have? Well after 350 days in a row, including Christmas and Mothers Day, they just finished putting on the canopy when the truck came to haul it to Buckley, wet paint and all. After the State inspection they fired the engine up and were in the parade on Thursday, August 18, 1994. Both were glad to be in the steam section of the parade for it’s first public showing.