r
National Plywood Formed In 1959
Cut Doubled
In First Year
Of Operation
One of the youngest, and at the
same time in a sense one of the
oldest, lumber companies in Rose
burg is National Plywood, Inc.
It's one of the youngest under
that name, with direction of local
area stockholders, and yet under
its older direction it is relatively
ancient in the field.
Early Operation
National Plywood was formed in
May 1, 1959, with A. J. Standley
as president. The Roseburg group
concern bought it from the Ump
qua Plywood Co., which was one
of the earliest such operations in
the county.
' National Plywood originally start
ed with personnel of 200, and has
now grown to 350.
Production began at 3,500,000
board feet per month, and it has
now progressed to seven million
board feet. This involves only ply
wood. The peak year was 1960, said
Standley, and in 1960 the produc
tion was 53,348,000 board feet.
The operation includes a sawmill
at Tiller and a complete plywood
operation and stud mill enterprise
in Roseburg.
New improvements Include a hot
press and belt sanders and a plan
er, said Standley.
Offering Included
The concern operates partially
upon resources developed from its
own timber and partly with govern
ment timber, the president of the
concern stated.
Standley had no comment to of
fer on the future prospects of the
industry.
Officials of the firm are A. J.
Standley, president; Tom Clark,
logging manager; George Ritten
house, superintendent at the Tiller
mill; Gordon Ellison, superintend
ent at the Roseburg mill; and Les
Petersen, office manager.
FEDERAL OWNERSHIP HIGH
Douglas County has 436,579
acres of forest land under federal
ownership not in national forests.
This figure includes 405,370 acres
in revested Oregon and California
Railroad land; 13,897 acres in re
vested Coos Bay Wagon Road land
and 17,312 acres in public domain
which are forest lands now under
the federal bureau of Land Man
agement. FORESTS HEAVY
Douelas County has a land area
of 3,239,680 acres. Of this total,
2,684,000 acres are in commercial
forests and 94,000 in non-commer
cial forests.
CONTRIBUTING A UNIQUE bit of historical lore to the Douglas County lumber in
dustry is National Plywood, Inc., of Roseburg, whose mill is shown here. Formed as a
local corporation in 1959, is is the successor to Umpqua Plywood, which was one of the
original operations in the area. (News- Review Photo).
Wright Bros. Mill Was First At Tiller
By MRS. MILTON HAMMERSLY
Earliest sawmill in Tiller - Drew
vicinity learned of in inquiring of
long-time residents was a small
one operated by the Wright broth
ers, Jay and Josh, on their home
stead properly on Devil's Knob
Road, northeast of Drew, sometime
about 1905. Lumber was used main
ly in building structures on the
Wright property.
Vern Lerwill recalls that at the
time his brother, W. B. Lerwill,
purchased the property about 1922,
now known as the Bootz place, two
miles upriver from Tiller, a saw
mill built by Tom Cunningham
and Guy and Howard Pcnnell had
been operating there. His brother
and the Pennells continued to run
the mill for a time, and lumber
from it was used in several local
buildings.
Staam Used
Power was furnished by a
steam boiler. Lerwill recalls that
as a boy he hauled lumber by
wagon from his brother's mill for
the covered bridge across the
South Umpqua River east of Milo.
It was built for Frank Fate for
access to his ranch, now the site
of the Milo Academy. Thai bridge
is now being dismantled, having
been replaced by a new structure
last summer.
Other sawmills were built and
operated over the years prior to
World War II, the Lausmann mill
near the Umpqua Divide being
among them, but the first exten
sive local operation was the one
installed by Ellon Jackson and as
sociates on property leased and
later purchased from Jess Lauf
fer on the hill near the Furlong
bridge at Tiller. First known as
J and G Lumber Co. and later
changed to Southern Oregon Sugar
Pine Co., it was built about 1939,
utilizing machinery from a Glen
dale mill.
Jackson sold the mill in- late
rlD52, and it remained closed for
more than a year before being
operated by a lessee and subse
quent owner, W. H. Daugherty,
before being closed permanently in
late 1335. It was dismantled, the
machinery sold and removed, and
the remaining property, including
company houses, was purchased
by Cooper and Young of Rose
burg. Mill Sold
Scott mill, built in 1952 on the
former Lee Stevens' property three
miles upriver from Tiller, was op
erated for a few years, then clos
ed. It stood idle for a time before
machinery was sold at auction last
summer, leaving only deserted
building skeletons.
Umpqua Plywood interests con
structed a stud mill and green
veneer plant known as Lake Pleas
ant Plywood Co. on the former
Loiuns rancn aDout six mues
above Tiller on the river road.
National Plywood Co., acquired the
Tiller mill when it bought Umpqua
Plywood and operated it until last
fall, when it closed to await an
upturn in the lumber market.
Other small mills, including a
few portables, have operated from
time to time in the area.
INVESTMENT HEAVY.
The capital investment necessary
to establish a typical logging oper
ation producing 60.000 board feet
per day is $328,000. This opera
tion would employ about 18 per
sons. It would take 118 companies
of this size to harvest the timber
harvested in 1958.
MILL OPERATES
The Hammerschmith Lumber Co
of Union Gap is running five
days a week. The company env
ploys seven men. It buys logs on
tne open market.
Le Tourneau Log
Addition At Hult
'Bun' Kelsay
Is Partner
In Operation
Sixteen years of operation have
seen a major growth in the opera
tion ot the faul Mult Lumber Co.
of Dillard, and though the conv
pany is affected like the rest of
the lumber industry with the
"shorts m the market right now,
it plans to go ahead with an ex
pected upturn in economic conditions.
Paul Hult. who with State Rco.
W. O. (Bun) Kelsay currently op
erates the plant, started in part
nership with L. R. Andrus. An-
drus has since retired from the
concern and is now in Eugene, in
a logging enterprise
About 100 at Peak
The original plant was built in
1945, with a crew of six men, and
enlargements steadily followed.
When at capacity . now, the cm
ployment is about 100.
From an original capacity of 20
thousand board feet per shift of
rougn lumber tne uiuara urm nas
increased to a production of 100
thousand board feet per shift of
TIMBER CONCENTRATED
The Pacific Northwest contains
46 per cent of the nation's saw
timber volume and 57 per cent of
its softwood saw timber. Oregon
and WashinEton together have pro
duced more than 30 per cent of
the total volume of lumber manu
facturers in the United States for
the past 30 years.
VIRGIN FORESTS MANY
Douglas County is in the center
of tne largest remaining concentra
tion of virgin forests in the Pacific
Northwest. Coos, Curry, Douglas,
Jackson and Josephine County con
tain 10 per cent of the total saw
timber in the nation and about 1.4
per cent of the nation s total com
mercial forest land area.
LUMBER DOCKS AMPLE
Douglas County s two cargo
docks at Reedsport are considered
big enough to handle the present
and foreseeable volume of lumber
shipments from the county area it
serves. One is the Cascades dock
and the other is at International
Paper Co. at Gardiner.
Man., Feb.. 27, 1961 The News-Review, Reieburg, Ort. 15
Stacker Newest
Lumber Company
' . - . v.- ,
v. " "
MUCH TIMBER BOUGHT
Martin Bros. Container and Tim
ber Products Corp. of Oakland has
purchased a total 50 million board
feet of timber at recent sales from
federal lands.
surfaced lumber. About one-half
of the present production is kiln
dried, said Hull.
Moves From Sit
The mill is now located about a
quarter mile from its original
site, and in the interim another
mill, and then the current one,
have succeeded the original enter
prise. The first two stud mills have
disappeared as "times changed,"
in Hull's words. There is nothing
left of.. the original structure, he
added.
The peak year of the concern
was in 1959, with a total produc
tion of 54,272,406 board feet. In
1960 the total output was 45,618,825
board feet.
A slow period is anticipated dur
ing the first half of 1961, and the
over-all production is expected to
be down about 10 per cent this
year, according to Hult;v but he
isn't an alarmist viewer by any
means.
Adds in Spring
He said the mill is currently
running but one shift, for the first
timo in at least a dozen years,
and that has been the situation
since last November, but he anti
cipates adding another eight-hour
crew in tne spring.
The lumber concern operator
said that the last major improve
ment at the plant came about a
year ago, with the LcTourneau log
stacker, which is continually more
in industry use as a valuable addi
tion to that phase of the operation.
Dan Kennedy is sales manaecr
for the Dillard firm, Fred Albertus
mill foreman, and Carl Halvorson
timber man.
SIXTEEN YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT ond on optimistic
eye toward the future characterize the operations of the
Paul Hult Lumber Co. in Dillard. The log pond is shown
in the foreground, the mill in the background. (News
Review Photo).
UNF Timber Sales In I960
Second Highest In History
The second highest sales year in
history was recorded by the Ump
qua National Forest for calendar
1960, as the total value of timber
sold hit a booming $9,007,000.
This sales value was brought in
by selling a record 368 million
board feet of timber.
195? Peak Year
The biggest value year came in
1959, when 355 million feet of tim
ber was sold for a total bid price
of $9,751,000.
The North Umpqua Ranger Dis
trict sold the most timber of the
six districts during 1960, as total
sales volume hit 97 million board
feet.
Bulk In Valuation
Sales on other districts saw the
Diamond Lake District hit 66 mil
lion feet; the Little River District
reach 62 million feet; the bouth
Umpqua District sold 56 million
feet; the Bohemia District sold 44
million feet; and the Cow Creek
Ranger District sold 43 million feet.
The bulk of the valuation came
in the second and fourth quarters.
BiEEcst money maker was the sec
ond quarter, from April through
June, when 136 million feet was
sold for $4,104,000. During the Oc
tober to December period 167,500,-
ikki, was sow tor $3,200,000.
The low sales period was from
Jill V thrmicrh Xrnlnmh- ,.,k. to
800,000 feet brought $1,472,000. The
,u" iuaner, January through
March saw 15 million feet bring in
a total value of $203,000.
J lie umpqua National Forest
said $1,159,543.70 to Douglas Coun
:y last year.
FOREST FORMED
On Feb. 2, 1886, some of the un
settled lands in the county were
set aside as forest reserves, and
more was set asms on March 2,
1907 to form the area now com
prising the Umpqua National For
est.
Before 1907, the Umpqua Forest
was part of the Cascade Forest,
which then included most of south
west Oregon.
WORK CURTAILED
Martin Bros. Container and Tim
ber Products Corp. mill and planer
now run four days a week. The
plywood plant it running three
short shifts.
1T
....for the
o COUNTY
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