Stimson Lumber history

By 1871, he has enough acreage to establish his own mills and equip them with modern machinery.

In 1873, Stimson incorporated the company as Stimson Clark Manufacturing Company.

1889 ACQUIRING TIMBERLANDT.D. and his sons W.H. and C.D. waste no time re-establishing their business in Seattle.

1890 INCORPORATIONStimson Mill Company is incorporated and begins processing lumber, laths and shingles.

In 1892, when demand for lumber slowed, Charles looked south to California to sell the company's excess capacity.

1898 LEARNING THE BUSINESSW.H., who had relocated to Los Angeles, sends his only son, Charles Willard (“C.W.”), to work with his uncle in Seattle.

1912 MOVING OPERATIONSC.W. sells the Ballard mill and moves operations to Hood Canal to log the timberlands his father purchased 40 years earlier.

In 1923, he purchased one of the oldest mills in Seattle, the Brace-Hergert Mill.

1929 Harold Miller leads the company in a move to the area around Tillamook, Oregon.

1933 STAYING COMPETITIVEC.W. remains involved in the business, but his son-in-law, Harold Miller, takes on the challenge of building a state-of-the-art sawmill in Forest Grove, Oregon.

This editorial appeared in the Coos Bay Times on May 29, 1935. It describes the 1935 lumber strike, one of the largest labor strikes in Pacific Northwest history.

1945 HARDBOARD EMERGESAfter a series of destructive fires burns some 355,000 acres in the Tillamook region, the company discovers burned and green wood can be converted into “hardboard.” Stimson’s Forest Fiber Products Company becomes the third hardboard plant in the United States.

After the death of Harold Miller, leadership of the company passes to Darrell Schroeder, a trusted employee who has worked at Stimson since 1946.

The first plywood was produced in December 1973 from one of the largest plywood plants in the country.

Northwest Petrochemical later supplied the phenol used in Stimson Lumber Company's plywood plant in Merlin, Oregon, which it purchased in 1976.

Champion then bought the Hoerner-Waldorf Company in 1977, which made them the owner of the Frenchtown pulp and linerboard plant.Unlike Anaconda, which Champion described as a “custodial type of manager,” Champion did not intend to be there forever.

In a 1978 draft report, the Champion stated, "It is anticipated this first operating plan [for Montana Forest lands] will be for a period of 18 years.

1980 LARGEST LAND PURCHASE TO DATEStimson purchases 27,598 acres of forest land in the Grand Ronde region of western Oregon.

1981 Harold Miller dies; Darrell Schroeder takes over leadership of the company.

However, despite its acquisitions, Stimson felt the pressure of shortages, and, in 1988, shut down the second shift at its Clatskanie mill.

In 1990, the spotted owl came under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, and tensions between environmentalists and those in the lumber business really began to heat up.

After Dan Dutton succeeded Schroeder as head of Stimson Lumber Company in 1991, the company, which employed about 2,000 in five states, closed an old-growth-dependent sawmill in Oregon City.

In 1993, Champion sold its 867,000 acres of timberlands to Plum Creek Corporation and its mill to Oregon-based Stimson Lumber Company.Under Stimson, the Bonner plant continued to produce plywood, studs, and premium lumber.

In 1994, it bought Champion International Corporation's manufacturing facilities at Bonner and Libby, Montana--three lumber mills and two plywood operations, including one of the world's largest plywood mills.

The 1996 Plum Creek purchase added another mill in Colville, Washington.

In 2000, Stimson Lumber bought Idaho Forest Industries of Coeur d'Alene, bulking up its acreage by another 90,000 and gaining three mills in an area where it already operated five mills.

The United States Forest Service decided to allow the company to build or reopen almost three miles of road in the Colville National Forest in 2001.

He continues to develop long-term strategic plans for the company. As a result of his dedication, extensive knowledge of the company, relationships with the management team and broad knowledge of the industry, Andrew becomes CEO in April 2004.