Totem Pole Tales- The Powerhouse Submitted by Nute Chapman From Onaway Outlook May 20, 2014

Caption : The Powerhouse as it looked in the 1960s.
 


  The second largest structure still standing in part is the powerhouse for the Lobdell Plant and the American
Wood Rim Plant.

  This building housed the large 12-foot dynamo wheel that was used to produce electricity for the factories.
The large pit in the powerhouse can still be identified.  It has seen other uses over the years.  It was used
to drive a vehicle over and work on the undercarriage by standing in the pit.  Our quick-change oil stations
still use a pit to work on your car from underneath.

  Some of the old-timers will recognize this building as Jim Noon's Blacksmith Shop.  This writer remembers the building
as Kramer's Repair and Welding Shop.  I went there several times with my Dad for car repairs of one kind or another.

  At that time Paul's dad, Max Kramer, could still be found using the big forge for making repairs.  Max could make
about any kind of part that one would need.  I can remember going there to get a gas tank welded.  Paul used a 
vacuum cleaner to get the fumes out of the tank before welding on it.

  Today the building is barely holding its own.  It needs a new roof and many repairs.

  I think it would be great to keep this part of Onaway's history.  It was with in this building that the huge 
dynamo wheel made its first revolutions April 14, 1901 and shed electric lights on the Lobdell Plant.

  At this time the rest of Onaway was blessed with gaslights only.

   
  
From the Onaway Outlook, May 30, 2014, page 3. 


Retyped by J. Anderson