The Guy Derrick as you see it now, is the result of hundreds of hours of volunteer labor. The mast is original, but the boom was broken into several pieces and had to be replaced. All the original hardware was used. The large round wheel at the base of the structure, called the ‘bullwheel’, was badly corroded and had to be removed and rebuilt. The mast is about 55′ high, the boom is about 50′ long. The bullwheel was connected to the ‘winch’.  The winch controlled the raising and lowering of the boom by steel cables which enabled the operator to turn the derrick in any direction.

The 19th century derrick was a system of tackles, blocks and pulleys borrowed from the technology used on sailing ships. Each Stiff Leg Derrick had a tall vertical post called a mast, and a fixed horizontal leg called a boom. Each Guy Derrick had a ‘live boom’ that could be raised and lowered. These derricks were often dismantled and moved from site to site. There are at least seven Guy Derrick sites and three Stiff Leg Derrick sites. There is also a derrick site at each of the five Motion sites on the property. Steam engines became available in the 1860’s, but before that derricks were powered by teams of oxen and manpower.

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