Steam Engine Display

The Steam Engine Building houses numerous engines and artifacts including a vast display of chain saws.

There is a huge 100 year old steam engine, which was built in 1907 in western Ontario and shipped to Stirling by train. The Stapley family, who lived just east of Stirling, used the steam engine to power thrashing machines, which harvested grain. They took the engine from farm to farm at harvest time.

In the late fall the Stapleys drove the steam engine all the way to the village of L’Amble near Bancroft, where they used it to power a sawmill to cut lumber through the winter months. It took three days to get to L’Amble. They had to take enough wood to fuel the boiler and enough water to make the steam which powered the engine. 

The Stapleys used the steam engine up until 1957 when petroleum-powered threshing machines came in. 

The steam engine was rebuilt in the 1970s and later given to the museum. Three generations of the Stapley family drove the engine all the way from Campbellford to the museum in Stirling.