Coast Consolidation

Chas. R. McCormick Lumber Co. Takes Over Pope & Talbot Interests

CAa- R. McConicft

The consummation of one of the largest, if not the largest, single deals involving the purchase of mangfacturing plants and timber that his evei been made on the Pacific Coast has just been completed, whereby ihe timber holdings. sawmills and other property of Pope & Ta-lbot, located in the state of Washington, has been transferred to the Chas. R. McCormick Lumber Co. of Delaware. The latter named organization is a recently formed corporation embracing whallvas formerly eight companies, comprising the various activities of the Chas. R. McCormick interests.

The McCormick interests, now combined under one corporate head, have for several years beeh the largest single factor in the marketing and distribution of forest products from the Douglas Fir belt, having sold and shipped in 1923 more than 530,000,000 feet, about 50,000,000 feet of rvhich moved by rail and the rest by water.

The acquisition of the huge timber holdings and sawmill plants of Pope & Talbot will mean that the McCormick organization becomes a much stronger factor in the manufacturing end of the business. Although for several years it had operated two good sized sawmill plants at St. Ffelens, up to this time the development in the manufacturing part of the business had not been as great as that of the selling end of the business. The annual production of the company's own sawmills will now total 25Q000,000 feet, which represents about one-half the amount handled through the selling organization.

_ In brief, the new deal adds to the holdings of the Charles R. McCormick Lumber Co. of Delaware property worth ap: proximately $20,000,000 and which comprises about 80,000 acres of land with timber, cruising in the neighborhood of 3,000,000,000 feet; two large sawmills, both on Puget Sound, one at Port Gamble and the other at Port Ludlow, with unsurpassed cargo shipping facilities and also rail connections rn'ith the transcontinental railroad lines; together with hotels, real estate, logging railroads and other prop. erty.

The eignt McCormick companies referred to above and which were absorbed by the newly organized Chas. R. McCormick Lumber Co. of Delaware were: St. Helens Lum. ber Company, St. Helens, Ore.; Island Lumber Co., St. Helens, Ore.; St. Helens Dock & Terminal Co., St; Helens, Ore.; St. Helens Creosoting Co., St. Helens, Ore.; Chas. R. McCormick Lumbef Co., Los Angeles; Chds. R. McCormick Lumber Co., San Diego; Chas. R. McCormick Steamship Co., San Frahcisco; McCormick Intercoastal Steamship Co., San Francisco.

The purchase above mentioned in reality means the consolidation now of these two large holdings and gives to the company a total of : Four large sawmills (250,000,000 feet annual production,) fifteen to twenty years' supply of timber, unsurpassed in quality and location; about 25 steamships for coastwise and intercoastal lumber trade; terminal docks at Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Brooklyn, N. Y.; yards at Los Angeles, Brooklyn, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Oceanside; a high- ly efficient buying organizatiorr in charge of E. H..Meyer at Portland, Ore.; Atlantic Coast sales offices in charge of W. R. Hewitt at New York City, and general offices occupying the ninth floor of the Matson Building, San Francrsco.

With its big production inits own sawmillq, its supply of raw material in the form of standing timber, its unusu. ally efficient buying service, its steamship lines, both in the coastwise and intercoastal trade, the company controls all the essential factors for special service in the largest of orders and has the facilities for the greatest despatch i4 cases of emergency or rush order requirements for special business in lumber of all kinds, including construction material or large tirnbers, piling, cedar poles, spars, ties, or creosoted lumber, piling and ties.

Just a keyhole glimpse at the history of this orgahization shows that Chas. R. McCormick has been identified with the lumber and shipping interests of the Pacific Coast for