A shout of “Sold!” brought the end to an era at Haywood Community College on Saturday with the auctioning off of the last of the campus sawmill’s equipment.

Since the college’s Wood Products Program and sawmill operations were discontinued in March 2003, HCC’s governing board has been working out what to do with the large amount of equipment still stored in the old building. As mandated by state law, the equipment that could not be used by other state entities was auctioned to the public as surplus.

But the machinery has quite a history in Haywood County, and one buyer was eager to keep it that way.

Kyle Edwards, owner of the Stompin’ Ground in Maggie Valley, bought “a whole lot” of the sawmill’s equipment, and he said his plan is to keep it intact and working for people in Haywood County ...