Montana’s Forest Industries 
“ORE than 400 sawmills and at least 75 other 
M wood-using plants operate in Montana. 
The output of all forest industries in 1948 
was valued at 50 million dollars. These industries 
are a major source of employment and income for 
many communities. 
Lumber is the principal wood product in Mon- 
tana, and lumbering the principal manufacturing 
industry. A number of other forest commodities 
are also produced: mine timbers, transmission poles, 
pulpwood, fuel wood, posts, lath, shingles, hewed 
ties, converter poles, corral poles, and Christmas 
trees. 
The Lumber Industry 
Since the 1840’s when the Jesuit Fathers in the 
Bitterroot valley flattened out a wagon wheel tire 
and cut sawteeth in it, the lumber industry has 
come a long way. ‘Their crudely constructed sawmill 
was the first. The next one was brought to Mon- 
tana in 1863 by two men, Holter and Evenson. 
Hitched behind a yoke of oxen, this mill was hauled 
more than 1,000 miles from Denver, Colo., to 
Madison County. It was in operation in 1864 and 
the first boards sold for a top price of $140 per 
thousand board feet (5). From such humble be- 
ginnings the lumber industry has grown to a 45- 
million-dollar business. 
Early production records show that Montana 
mills sawed about 13 million board feet of lumber 
in 1869. By 1900 production exceeded 200 million 
board feet, and continued generally upward to a 
peak of 427 million board feet in 1923. Lumber 
output took a sharp slump during the depression, 
dropping to a little more than 100 million board 
feet in 1932. Following this, production headed 
upward again to a new peak of 598 million board 
feet in 1948 (fig. 2, p. 4). 
Forest Resources of Montana 
Size of Montana Sawmills 
Lumbering in Montana is in its third phase of 
development. The first phase was the operation 
of the pioneer mills, such as the one run by Holter 
and Evenson. The second phase, from about 1890 
to 1925, was that of the large mill, during which 
big plants were constructed in Libby, Eureka, Troy, 
Missoula, Hamilton, and several other towns. Ac- 
cording to the lumber census of 1921, large mills 
accounted for 75 percent of the lumber production 
’ The third phase began after 1925. 
Large mills dropped in number from 7 to 5 in 1948 
and their production fell off proportionately. Dur- 
ing the quarter century following 1925 many smaller 
plants were established and their combined output 
in 1948 was over 300 percent higher than in 1926. 
In 1948 the most important segment of the lum- 
ber industry was the medium-size mills which pro- 
duced 48 percent of the lumber cut (fig. 24). Just 
how much the center of gravity shifted between 
1921 and 1948 is shown in figure 25 and in appen- 
dix table 23. 
The larger mills that have closed over the years 
appear to have done so because of their inability 
to get enough ponderosa pine at a time when it 
was difficult to market timber of other species. ‘The 
two largest sawmills in Montana today, the Bonner 
plant of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co., and the 
Libby plant of the J. Neils Lumber Co., have been 
favored with a backlog of ponderosa pine timber. 
Both also have had relatively good outlets for sawed 
material of other species. ‘The Bonner mill saws 
much larch and Douglas-fir for the Butte mines and 
the J. Neils Lumber Co, has developed a market 
in that year." 
* The term “large mills” as used here includes plants pro- 
ducing 10 million board feet or more annually; medium 
mills, 1 million to 10 million board feet; and small mills, 
under 1 million board feet. 
no 
~I 
