Simpson Lumber "The Last Log."

hey here we're gathered to run the last log he'll freak out there's no record of a special ceremony and no video cameras documented the first log harvested by Saul Simpson who founded the SG Simpson & Company in 1890 Solomon grout Simpson was born 1843 in Quebec Canada in 1865 he moved to Carson City Nevada to seek his fortune in the silver and gold mines Saul was luckier in love than in prospecting marrying there his beloved Mary Garrard Holly Simpson in 1878 they moved to Seattle and Saul began grading roads in this growing frontier town and building railroads into the wilderness of Mason and Grays Harbor counties Saul's logging career took off in Mason County harvesting and delivering logs for the port Blakely mill company to the tidal booming grounds of Newcomb LG near the present-day town of Shelton Saul was a true innovator being one of the first to use draft horses for grading and logging instead of oxen as Simpson and company grew Saul struck up a business relationship with a young man named Mark Reed mark became a skilled manager at Simpson and company and he solidified their relationship by marrying Saul's older daughter Irene in 1901 with Saul and Tolly having no sons the Simpson legacy was destined to be carried forward through their descendants in the Reed family Sall hope to cash in on the Alaska Gold Rush and started the white star steam company in 1900 his pregnant daughter was riding home on one of the vessels to have her baby in Seattle when the ship lost its rudder at sea the ship and passengers were eventually rescued but the harrowing event and the resulting lawsuits took an emotional toll and nearly bankrupt Saul Saul died of leukemia in 1906 at the age of 63 mark read immediately took the reins of Simpson and the company's peninsular railroad moving the headquarters from Seattle to Shelton mark oversaw tremendous changes from 1906 to 1933 with expanding operations and logging banking railroading and the founding of the Shelton navigation company mark was a key player in the building of the city of Shelton and in the construction of a fireproof business district after the 1914 Shelton fire mark served two terms as mayor of Shelton and in 1914 was elected to the state legislature eventually serving as Speaker of the House in Olympia marks successfully sponsored bills promoting worker safety and medical insurance and was a tireless advocate for the city of Shelton mark was a favorite candidate for governor but declined to run Reed was instrumental in financing the construction of Shelton General Hospital in 1920 while on one of his many business trips mark and several other lumber executives contracted dysentery through a contaminated food handler at a conference in Chicago in September 1933 he died a few days later at Providence Hospital Seattle the company was growing and innovating through its early days with the introduction of portable logger camps transported up the Olympic Mountains on railroad cars starting in 1917 in the mid 1920s Simpson built the high steel bridge over the Skokomish River then the fifth highest logging bridge in the world built to provide access to timber ever higher into the Olympic Mountains it remains a popular destination to this day numerous permanent logging camps were built over the years the largest being camp Grizedale housing 52 families plus dorms for dozens of single men the community of camp Grizedale included a school stores a bowling alley and a barbershop from 1946 to its closing in 1985 Simpson continued to expand its markets with hemlock lumber for the East Coast upon the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 and lumber for Japan following the great earthquake of 1923 upon marks death sons Frank and Bill Reid continued their forebears legacy of growth and innovation with trust at general manager Chris Kryon Baum they introduced the sustained yield philosophy in the management of Simpson timber resources a paradigm shift from simply cutting forests and moving on Simpson was a leader in the tree farm movement launched in the early 1940s in 1943 Simpson joined with other local timber owners to form the South Olympic tree farm company at Shelton which contributed to the propagation of over 6 million seedlings by 1945 the intense pressures of world war 2 required aggressive expansion for Simpson to survive acquiring the McCleary timber company along with the entire town of McCleary Simpson made huge improvements to the dilapidated town and then transferred ownership to residents and the municipality for less than the cost of the many upgrades in 1946 bill Reid estimated that the company would soon deplete its remaining timber Simpson moved quickly to create the visionary sustained yield harvesting plan for the Shelton area in cooperation with the u.s. Forest Service the company then added new timber resources by purchasing forest lands in the California Redwoods in reducing redwood waste Simpson again innovated by introducing methods to manufacture pulp from redwood fibers turning what was a worthless by-product into a valuable commodity simpson's involvement with pulp and paper manufacturing actually began back in 1929 in acquiring an interest in the rainier paper and pulp mill in shelton the business grew with the addition of plants in Everett Northern California and Michigan Simpson added and advanced twenty-two thousand square foot research facility in Redmond in 1961 with continued growth through the 1980s Simpson acquired the tacoma craft mill in 1985 and by 1990 was a national producer of fine papers in 1971 Gary Reed replaced his father bill as chairman and Furman mostly Gary's brother-in-law became president assuring the company's role as an independent family business access to harvestable timber was a challenging process through the relative boom of the 1970s and the deep recession in the 1980s resulting in forest land purchases from Canada to southern Chile with the closing of the 20th century simpson's focus increasingly turned from paper back to its core timber and lumber business in the pacific northwest under the leadership of chairman : Moseley and president Rea Tennyson with every generation as Simpson the company and its employees have made great effort in the care for the environment whether making major environmental improvements at tacoma craft removing the dam on Goldsboro Creek and Shelton to improve fish habitat or implementing a habitat conservation plan to protect wildlife water and forest resources at the onset of the new millennium the fundamental differences required in managing both Simpson's manufacturing and its Timberland operations led to the decision in 2002 to divide Simpson timber company into two entities craft paper lumber and door manufacturing under Simpson investment company and the timber operations became the green diamond resource company under the leadership of President Allen drink walt simpson lumber company grew significantly with the acquisitions of the Longview Washington stud mill the John's Prairie Washington dimensional milk along with the Meldrum Georgia and Georgetown South Carolina southern yellow pine mills recognizing the scale efficiency and quality products of the modern Simpson Lumber Company the thousands of skilled employees through the years and the tens of thousands of verdant productive forest lands growing today founder Saul Simpson would be truly amazed by the 125 year legacy of the Simpson Lumber Company Simpson's Northwest Mills included the Longview Washington operations commencement Bay in Tacoma and in Shelton area male 3 Mill five and John's Ferrari when you talk about Simpson you talk about generational employment and my grandfather worked here and my my father worked here and then I worked here because of the multi-generational thing it Simpson has been an emotional long-term relationship that will probably be missed the camaraderie with all the truck drivers I've got a list of over 200 truck drivers that when they come in I see them on the computer and I try to address everybody by the first name and just the camaraderie just you know this is in my blood heavy equipment and I'm just gonna miss it I'm sad to see it go but I understand this industry it's always a possibility yeah it was always you know I raised my kids on timber dollars was a it was a way to pay your mortgages to raise your family you don't have insurance and that was it back then you know that that's I think a lot of us are looking at we were hoping that Simpson would maybe sell but we keep our job here maybe have a paid cut or something and keep on going you know younger guys have to go look for work and all of you guys are you know like me or closer to retire I'm gonna tell the guys that yeah I've been here for 27 years and most of these guys are like family I said I said because I weren't swinging most of the time I spent more time with these guys down here then I did my family but I tell them what that doesn't mean I love you I started a citizen in 1990 and I've been working on the track conductor and a little of it here we bring an empty glove Lepper cars and switch out loaded bumper cars for everyone Simpson railroad has four switch locomotives tie tapper speeders local crane workers see us about 24 hours right out of the Marine Corps debarker operator bringing logs up big blind if they're oversized you'll cut out the oversized part throw it to the ground working as part of the team that was a great bunch of guys down here it's been a pleasure working with everybody missing much just basically been the people I work with the bosses I've had really good crew when things go wrong everybody comes together I definitely my hero because I provided a stable good job just gave me everything I always needed I always worked worked so hard I appreciate it Simpsons always had a lot of long-term employees sometimes second and third generation employees sons and daughters come into work after they're usually after their father and that's partly because or mainly because Simpson was a good employer a stable employer people wanted to work there provided safe working conditions interesting work and good pay and benefits we didn't have a need for heaters in the old days because we all pretty much worked up a sweat I think technology based at the mill 3 we had approximately 50 52 people on a ship and on an eight-hour production ship we produced a hundred thousand board feed on a good day in today's technology we've got a little over 20 people on the shift and we produce probably on an average 70 80 thousand board feeding hours when I first began the technology was pretty basic but over the course of the 90s and particularly the first the early 2000 2005 period of time as computerization became more and more useful and used in the lumber production business it really began to change the business and changed how people competed in the business you know you spent 37 years with them yeah you're gonna miss a lot of a lot of them you've seen you've kind of grew up with them you know and a lot of we've seen start here and throw up and been fun the family ethic that Saul started when he founded the company is still alive and well in the company today it's a family-owned business if the family's name is on the business which i think is very significant and it's always I guess designated product of high quality but also is a shout out to the workforce and the ownership in that if you're if you're proud enough to put your name on it your ethics and your your business acumen and the way you treat people is advertised every day on everything you make the thing that's always impressed me about Simpsons employees were their willingness to really pitch in to cooperate and work with each other to support each other each person was a character each person had a great personality in their own right they were all really hard workers intelligent men trying to do the best for the team it's taking care of my family that's I guess that's all you can ask for Simpson has taken good care of us and a steady job too so you know I've put two girls two colleagues and hey what work the guy asked for well for me it gave me a chance to stay in the lumber industry I worked at another company previously for about 18 years she has to work with a lot of great guys guys are really dedicated to the company and its really been a good ride I've been login account and log accounting tracking the logs from the point of delivery all the way through payment a lot of guys in this business have you ever had to work extra hard to earn your stripes in the lumber business well I don't know about working extra hard I think that Simpson especially has been extremely supportive of all of the employees this is brutal and we have another sales rep Tammy Williams who's with us here and she's done a phenomenal job as well and just the acceptance of all people in this company has been phenomenal if you enjoyed most about your job with Simpson and in sales the relationships that we've had the opportunity to build I've been here for 10 years my dad started in 1938 and basically somebody and my family's worked for them to the 1938 till present so what is that 60 to 70 70 years straight my family's been employed by Simpson so it's it's pretty sentimental day for me 125 years of history coming to an end grateful to Simpsons owners to read family it's been a wonderful career working for Simpson 41 years I was always proud of being a part of Simpson because its reputation for honesty and integrity it was known throughout the northwest as a top-notch outfit

Channel: NorthWoodsVideo

Views: 364,973

Rating: 4.7060881 out of 5

Keywords: Lumber (Industry), Simpson lumber, wood, Forest (Literature Subject), Logging (Literature Subject), History (TV Genre), The History Channel (TV Network), Sawmill (Invention), Washington (US State)

Id: _DmzZuT8G5Q

Length: 19min 29sec (1169 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 11 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Thanks for sharing this. My husband is from Simpson Timber Country.