Old sawmill of Scierie Laganière, Grondines, circa 2021

[Réjean Laganière]: Back here, there was a mill for sawing wood. On the second floor, they used to make wooden butter boxes. Now it’s cardboard. After that, they did molding. They made everything out of wood, in the big mill that no longer exists. And it all ran on steam. There were two steam engines. I know all about those days. And then there were contracts. There was another mill too, at the foot of the Pied de la Montagne. There were government contracts. Then, it turned into a hundred years.

[R. L.]: Here, when they started sawing in the second mill, in the other one, in the big mill, well here, they weren’t doing much anymore. They had stopped because they were making furniture here, in this section. The part with the windmill. They made furniture, butter churns, spinning wheels… They made just about everything that could be made out of wood. Then, in addition, they built houses. They would finish houses and everything. They were two people who knew a lot about wood. They were expert woodworkers.

Today, the unusual octagonal building is quite silent. Yet in days gone by, the windmill that crowned it powered the sawmill inside, and the Laganières were busy in their woodshop.

Anvil from the old Laganière forge.

In addition to the sawmill, a forge was installed in the bakehouse of the adjacent house. Apart from the huge chimney that still towers over the summer kitchen, there is little evidence of the hum of the Laganière family at the beginning of the last century. The anvil that still stands in the old woodshop is one of the few witnesses to this era.