In 1995 Tom Carter joined the Wood-Mizer family of sawyers by purchasing his first LT40 hydraulic mill, he later went on to purchase another LT40 hydraulic, an LT70 remote, another then last year both another LT40 hydraulic, and a Timbery M100 with enough track to mill a 30’ beam. He decided to add the Timbery to the mix because he was able to get a high quality mill that would cut over 30’ for under $5000.00 Using his Wood-Mizer sawmills and now his Timbery, he has completed some amazing projects over the years from homes to churches, to commercial buildings and historic landmarks, Carter has done a little bit of everything.
Tom Carter of Carter Construction is a master craftsman residing in Beautiful Lake County California. Lake County was once the home of Liilie Langtry an actress in the 1800’s whose scandalous affairs with Princes gained her quite a reputation in her day, enough to be the inspiration for the lead actress in the Hollywood film, “blazing saddles”, (there’s even a picture of her in the movie behind the bar). Part of Carters resume includes the restoration of the main home where Lillie Lived. She so inspired judge “Hanging Roy Bean” in Texas that many of his judgements included the statement, “well, Miss Lillie would say” and then complete his judgment.
In 2007 Carter Construction had the privilege of creating a beautiful replica of a Lake County judges courtroom bench using wood sawn on his Wood-Mizer LT40 sawmill. He built this bench in the old original courthouse so the County could reenact some infamous local court cases. They also built an entire new replica courthouse museum in front of the new courthouse to preserve the history.
One of the more impressive works that Carter undertook was the restoration of the Tallman hotel and the Blue Wing Saloon and Café. The new owners wanted to redo it and preserve as much history in the original building as possible so they contracted with Carter to make that happen.
In the blue Wing Saloon, one of the tasks he undertook was to build on to a gingerbread walnut bar that the pioneers brought over from Pennsylvania and he had to match the new to the old. Carter was able to salvage a walnut that had to be removed from the very property where the Blue Wing and that Tallman resided and utilize that along with his LT40 Wood-Mizer to cut a 26” wide almost 21’ long bar top to match. It is a true work of art. Carter spent years working with the new owners and the architects on the bar and hotel to ensure that they were done as closely to period as was humanly possible. Having the flexibility to cut any size, and specie material and not depend on what was available to Carter at the local lumber store was key to his success in these projects and will be key to his continued success in the future.
Carter has also used his Wood-Mizer to cut out the wood for some stunning flooring projects complete with intricate inlays and designs. Carter said he was inspired to start making some of the floors while in Rome.
Most of his projects are from wood that comes from his own ranch or that is salvaged from the Lake County community that he does most of his projects in.
