centennial FlashBack

The 1970s

To mark this year’s 100th anniversary of The Merchant Magazine, we are looking back each month, decade by decade, at the advertisers that have long supported us and are still growing strong to this day.

This month we check in on the groovy ’70s.

• Swaner Hardwood, four years after its founding, announced its move to a spacious new yard in Burbank, Ca., in a series of ads in The Merchant Magazine in May of 1971. The hardwood manufacturer/distributor continues at this same facility to this day.

• Sierra Pacific Industries traces its beginnings to 1949 with Curly and son “Red” Emmerson’s first leased sawmill in Humboldt County. The current corporation was established in 1969 and by August 1971, when it first advertised in The Merchant, SPI had grown to nine Northern California mills. It now manages 2.3 million acres of timberland and operates a dozen sawmills, plus millwork, door/window, reman plants, and more.

• Kelleher Corp. was founded in 1970 by Don Kelleher, working out of a quonset hut. He introduced a formal distribution center to Merchant readers in August 1971, and has since become

one of the largest distributors of wood moulding products and accessories in the western U.S.

• Disston, the pioneering handsaw manufacturer, was acquired in 1955 by H.K. Porter Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. Porter began expanding the brand to a range of tools, such as tape measures, in August 1971. Disston lives on as a maker of custom steel blades, while H.K. Porter combined with Crescent Tools as Apex Tool Group’s industrial cutting products.

• National Gypsum was incorporated in 1925 to develop a lighter, stronger wallboard made from a mixture of newsprint, gypsum and starch. At the heart of its first marketing campaign was its “Gold Bond,” offering $5,000 to anyone who could identify a lighter, stronger gypsum wallboard on the market. First running in The Merchant in December 1972, National Gypsum has remained a force as the nation’s second largest producer of wallboard.

• Elof Hansson was established in 1897 as an international trading house, with a timber division that began marketing through The Merchant in March 1973.

• Louisiana-Pacific was spun off from GeorgiaPacific in 1973 under largerthan-life president Harry Merlo, who was caricatured in July 1973 on the cover of The Merchant Magazine. From its initial holdings of timberlands and lumber and plywood mills, LP helped pioneer OSB and a range of other building products.

• Hampton Lumber patriarch Bud Hampton purchased his first sawmill in Willamina, Or., in 1942, initially to supply his own Tacoma lumber business. His son John launched the wholesale division, Hampton Lumber Sales, in 1950. First advertising in The Merchant in January of 1974, Portland, Or.-based Hampton is now under its fourth generation, with SFI-certified timberlands and nine sawmills in the Northwest.

• All-Coast Forest Products was launched in 1975 as a division of Hampton Lumber Sales and headed by Daryl Bond, who had recently split from his partners at Fremont Forest Products. All-Coast debuted in The Merchant in May 1976. Bond convinced Hampton to build a reman plant and DC in Chino, Ca., in 1978, and bought it from them a year later. He added a 97-acre reman and distribution facility in Cloverdale, Ca., in 1988 and a 15-acre DC in Englewood, Co., in 1990.

• Capital Lumber, Phoenix, Az., was founded in 1948 by George Gaskin. It began teaming with The Merchant in July 1976, when it expanded beyond Arizona with new locations in New Mexico and Southern California. The wholesaler now serves the entire western U.S. from eight distribution facilities.

• Redwood Empire was launched in 1971 by Roger Burch to mill and wholesale western lumber species, as promoted to readers in May 1976. After more than 50 years of growth and acquisition through its Pacific States Industries parent, it has become a giant in distribution, manufacturing, timberlands, wood treating, and value-added operations.

• California Cascade Industries, Sacramento, Ca., opened as a regional distributor in 1974. It served as exclusive sales agent for Oregon stud maker Little River Box Co. (see its inaugural ad from October 1976). Cal Cascade was purchased by CanWel Building Materials in 2015.

• Frost Hardwood Co. opened on West Market Street in San Diego in 1911. Fifteen years after beginning its association with The Merchant in October 1976, the wholesaler relocated to its current site on Miramar Road.

• Parr Lumber Co., named after owner Pete Parrella, announced its opening in Orange, Ca., in October 1976. In time, it purchased a 10-acre wholesale yard in Chino, Ca., where it still operates.

• Sequoia Supply was formed to wholesale wood products in 1948 and acquired by Wickes Cos. in 1975. Its Fairfield, Ca., distribution center premiered in The Merchant in March 1977. In 1990, Sequoia Supply merged its 33 DCs with Grip-Rite’s 15 to create PrimeSource Building Products.

• Northwest Hardwoods started in Portland, Or., in 1967 with a single alder mill. A decade later, by its Merchant debut in October of 1977, Northwest Hardwoods had two mills manufacturing a combined 50 million bd. ft. annually. It now has 17 manufacturing facilities and 11 warehouses across the country, following sales to Weyerhaeuser in 1990, American Industrial Partners in 2011, and Littlejohn & Co. in 2014.

• Manke Lumber, Tacoma, Wa., launched in the 1950s, incorporated in the 1960s, and began advertising in The Merchant in December of 1977. It now operates two sawmills, two planer mills, plus Superior Wood Treating, wood pellets and timber divisions.

• North American Wholesale Lumber Association has closely aligned with The Merchant since our first year, placing its first ad in April 1978. We are currently the official publication of NAWLA.

• Chozen Trucking’s Louie Escobedo began his association with The Merchant in July 1978.

• Peterman Lumber ran an ad in August 1979 to announce its founding by Pete Peterman. Offering hardwoods, custom milling, and panel products, the company started in Orange County, relocating to Fontana in 1981 and later adding operations in Phoenix and Las Vegas.

• Thunderbolt Wood Treating, Riverbank, Ca., started up in 1977 and began advertising with us in September 1979. The TSO specialist initially treated with CCA, but since has added a range of preservatives and increased to six retorts, plus dry kilns.

• McFarland Cascade, Tacoma, Wa., got its start in 1916 and steadily grew into one of the largest wood treaters in the West. First running in The Merchant in September of 1979, the company was acquired by Stella Jones in 2012.

• Timber Products of Springfield, Or., was established in 1918 and soon began producing a diversified range of wood products, including the textured siding it highlighted in The Merchant in November 1979. Best known for its hardwood plywood, TP now has nine manufacturing facilities, an import division, and a nationwide logistics and transportation division.

• Therma-Tru was launched in 1962 by a retired Owens Corning executive who, after a career in fiberglass insulation, purchased a bankrupt building supply company in Toledo, Oh., to produce the industry’s first fiberglass door, the Fiber-Classic. It first ran in The Merchant in November 1979. Since 2003, Therma-Tru has been part of the Fortune Brands Home & Security family.