Check out this old mill 1925

[Kbeitz]

Looks like the head is stationary and the whole carriage moves.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Horizontal_bandsaw_mill_(Carpentry_and_Joinery,_1925).jpg

Blade runs at 7,000 ft. per minute

[1-2 Tree]

Man I would love to have one . Bet those blades would cost ! The foundry patterns would have been huge

[Slingshot]

.

   Only reasonable to think that is the way the first band mills would be built
as they already had the manufacturing process in place to push the log
through the blade. And then someone realized that you would only need
half as much track if you could push the blade through the log.

[dgdrls]

very cool indeed,  I love the stationary inverted castor wheels

Dan

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

I have seen a similar mill in use.  The log is on a carriage.  The reason this is done, and that the saw does not move, is that the power is transferred via leather belts to the band wheel.  This has never been able to move, as the belt gets its power from a stationary shaft.  If the saw moves and the log is stationary, then the power (the drive motor) also has to move, so we would need a gas, diesel or electric motor moving and not leather drive belts.