The generosity of Dennis Ovyn touched the Owen-Withee Area Historical Society on a sunny day in November 2024. On what was coincidentally almost the 20-year anniversary of its discovery, Dennis presented a well preserved 48-inch cant hook to Karen Swiggum of the O-W Area Historical Society.

The cant hook was personally recovered by Dennis during a 2004 project to clean out and dredge the Owen Mill Pond of over 100 years of sediment, logs and debris. One can only imagine the stories that cant hook could tell of how it came to be lodged at the bottom of the Mill Pond. Most certainly a historic tool of John S. Owen sawmill workers from another era.

The Owen Mill Pond dates to 1893, when the John S. Owen sawmill was first constructed in Owen. A dam was built on Brick Creek to create a mill pond for holding logs that were fed into the sawmill. The sawmill (from 1893 until 1934) was located on the western edge of the Owen Mill Pond, where Kerry Ingredients now stands.

Dennis is a lifelong resident of the Owen-Withee area. A 1959 graduate of Owen-Withee High School and a U.S. Army veteran. He is owner and operator of Dennis Ovyn Trucking & Excavating Company of rural Withee.

The cant hook is now on display at the O-W History Center, a historic museum. The bricks used to build the O-W History Center were salvaged from the 1934 demolition of the John S. Owen sawmill.