Have you seen the recent Leonardo Di Caprio film “The Revenant”? Some people know the film was made in Canada but most do not know where the building materials came from used to make the 19th century West come to life. It was Brooks Sawmill out of Cochrane, Alberta. A family run sawmill that has actually supplied sawn lumber to several other films. In addition, their lumber is highly regarded for use with corrals and outbuildings for many local clients, as Cochrane has become quite affluent in recent years.
The sawmill itself is very old having been established in 1901. Current proprietor David Brooks speaks of customers calling the single phone in the town (located at the general store) to put through lumber orders a couple seasons before they picked up in spring. David also speaks of times where the steam engine, which ran the sawmill, could only work for half a day due to water shortages. Those were definitely challenging times! To read the full article as per the author Tony Kryzanowski (Alberta Farmer Express) please click here.