D0rB$rB & caB$0il IIas 80tli

In tontinaal hperatiotr

The mill crs it stood in 1878. From qn old lithogrcphic print' (This mill wcrs built on l5xl6 in. Redwood loundation sills resting on piler obout I in. crbove mud. In 1925, altet 47 yecrs oI service ihis old mill wqs dismcntled and ccrelul inapeciion ol the sille proved them to be in guch wonderfully sound condition that they were uEed in constructingt qdditionql lumber plctlorms, Some recordl-even lor Redwood.)

Eighty years ago this week, during the administration of Abraham Lincoln, two California pioneers, William Carson and John Dolbeer formed a partnership that has since grown into one of the best known lumber operations on the Pacific Coast, Dolbeer & Carson Lumber Company, manufacturers of Redwood.

In 1857 William Carson, a native of New Brunswick, who had arrived in Humboldt County in 1851 and started working in the Redwoods that year, operated a sawmill with'a partner named Philip Hinkley. He later met John Dolbeer, who had come from New Hamphire, and in 1863 these two men built the foundation on which the present Dolbeer & Carson Lumber Company is constructed.

Around these two rugged pioneers centers much of the history of Humboldt County, particularly of the lumber industry, a great deal of which has died out with the old timers and been forgotten. However, there's one thing on which the histories and old timers agree, and that is the fact that William Carson shipped the first cargo of Redwood lumber out of Humboldt Bav.

The modern electric mill now operated by this company is in great contrast to the small circular saw operation that began sawing in 1863. The two main rigs and the seven-foot resaw give this mill an average daily production of 140,000 feet, which includes a large percentage of Clear and other uPper grade material, due to the high. class timber owned by the company. An electric power plant furnishes the energy for the sawmill, numerous remanufacturing machines and the battery of six dry kilns.

In addition to the long sorting table the mill has twc> outlets, one for ties, the other for large timbers. This method of handling the mill's production of ties and timbers adds greatly to the efficiency with which the general output of the mill is taken care of from the table and distributed to the various grade piles in the green and dry yards. The kiln-dried stock is unloaded from kiln trucks under cover and transferred to the large dry sheds adjoining the planing mill. Worked dry orders for rail shipment are assembled in separate sheds also adjoining the planing mill and are then loaded into cars without being exposed to the weather.