Norwegian Sawmill Museum

The Norwegian Sawmill Museum (Norwegian: Norsk Sagbruksmuseum) is a museum located in the village of Spillum in Namsos Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The town of Namsos lies just to the north, across the river Namsen. The museum opened in 1991 at the site of the former sawmill operated by Spillum Sawmill & Planing (Spillum Dampsag & Høvleri).

The Norwegian sawmill industry was, around the start of the 19th century, one of Norway's largest industries with several hundred steam powered sawmills. Spillum Sawmill and Planing is the last preserved sawmill from this period and tells the story about the national sawmill history. The Sawmill Museum is today one out of four departments at the regional museum, ”Museet Midt”. The three other departments are The Coast Museum in northern Trøndelag, Namdal Museum, and Nord-Trøndelag County Gallery. As well as the technical-industrial cultural environment at Spillum Sawmill & Planing, The Norwegian Sawmill Museum manages the tugboats ”MB Hauka” and "MB Oter" and a collection of objects from the national history of sawmills, displaying sawmill equipment from most of the country's regions. The Norwegian Sawmill Museum has a staff of about 11 employees. The staff run the museum from the facilities at the sawmill.

Spillum Sawmill & Planing (Spillum Dampsag & Høvleri) was founded in 1884, as one of the first steam powered sawmills in Norway. Until then the sawmill industry had been powered by water-driven vertical saws. Still it had been one of the country's largest export industries since the 16th century. Towards the end of the 19th century, the export greatly diminished. However, the export was largely replaced by production to growing domestic markets.

A burgeoning industrialization and urban development in the beginning of the 20th century led to the emergence of the modern day Norwegian society. These trends gave rise to a new and growing demand for lumber for the construction of housing and other buildings in Norway, particularly in the cities. A booming sawmill industry emerged.

As a medium-sized sawmill, Spillum Sawmill & Planing predominantly produced for the northern regions of Norway. The products ranged from sawn timber and unplaned cladding to mouldings and panels. The sawmill even produced prefabricated homes, interiors included. Houses for workmen and beach cabins were produced based on standardized designs.

In the 1940s, the sawmill was modernized. Electric motors were mounted on the saws and the planer. From this point onwards, the steam engine was left inoperative, except for the fact that the sawmill still continued to use the steam engine's boiler to generate steam for the process of drying sawn timber in a new building raised for this purpose adjacent to the production facilities.

In total, the production facility and the newer drying building have a ground area of about 2,960 square metres (31,900 sq ft), which makes this building one of the largest wooden buildings in the Nordic countries.

In 1986, the production at the saw mill ceased. At the time, The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology was conducting a process to find a steam-powered saw mill that could be preserved as a technical-industrial cultural heritage site. Spillum Sawmill turned out to be the best preserved sawmill of its kind in the country. The foundation Spillum Sawmill & Planing was subsequently formed. The foundation bought the sawmill, including the buildings, machines and the inventory. The acquisition was financially supported by the Directorate for Cultural Heritage.