149 



1989 Custer Lumber of Custer, SD sells out to WDT Industries, a large business 

 concern from Portland, Oregon. 



1990 Pope & Talbot, Inc. purchases Powder River Sawmills and liquidates the sawmill. 



1990 Pope & Talbot, Inc. purchases WTD's Custer mill and liquidates the mill. 



1990 Potters Mill of Rapid City stops operations and is liquidated 



1992 Little River Lumber Co. of Piedmont, SD closes down and sells its assets to 



Continental Lumber Company. Piedmont mill is scheduled to be auctioned off. 



1992 Hamms Forest Products shuts down and announces a September mill auction will 



be held. 



At present there are only three sawmill companies that appear to have the ability and desire to 

 purchase Black Hills. These are Pope & Talbot, a large business mill with operations in 

 Washington state, Canada, Spearfish and New Castle, South Dakota; Continental Lumber 

 Company, with operations in Hill City, and Neiman Sawmills with operations in Hulett, 

 Wyoming. 



One of these companies has only three months volume under contract and will not survive the 

 winter unless the Forest Service sells all of its 1993 program and meets Supervisor Kenops 

 commitment from 1989 of selling 118 million board feet of saw timber until the forest plan 

 revision is completed. 



The Forest Service, with its program to increase the value of volume sold off the Forest, is 

 indirectly responsible for the demise of at least eight small business sawmills in the last six years. 

 Pope & Talbot, Inc. was directly involved in purchasing five of these mills. 



15 



