McCloud River Lumber Company, Great California Pine Operation

One of the milling institutions that the lumber industry of California points to with pardonable pride, is that of The McCloud River Lumber Company, at McCloud, California.

Like several other of the Pine group, it is marvelously situated. Over four thousand feet above sea level, this beautiful sawmill town lies at the foot of the wonderful Mount Shasta, in Siskiyou County, where the air is always rare and invigorating, and where there is always tvonderful scenery to delight the eye. Ilealthful and happy aie the 1,8O0 workers and their families, who live at McCloud.

It is strictly a mill town. Everything there is of and by and for the company and its employes. They have their own fine schools, hotel, theatre, and other mqdern conveniences. Out in the logging woods where four hundred men are employed the year around, they operate and maintain a special club house for the men, where there are billiard tables, library, magazine and newspaper tables, and other forms of divertisement and amusement. This is built of the movable type, and follows the logging camp.

The equipment of the sawmill at McCloud particularly boasts of two things. First, they have the biggest battery of dry kilns of any sawmill on earth. Second they have the biggest sawmill equipment of any mill in California, and claim to have the largest Pine production. They also lay particular stress upon the quality of their timber, maintaining that the location, altitude, and climatic conditions, combine to make their particular timber of surpassing quality. At any rate, their present figures show that they are cutting ,ffi% White Pine and 40/o Sugar Pine, which is an enormous percentage of the latter, and that their percentage of uppers cannot be beaten in California Pine.

It might well be stated here, however, that there is one other particular claim that General Manager B. W. Lakin makes with regard to Mccloud, which is that it is the cleanest sawmill town, morally and physically, that exists anywhere, this being one thing to which they give their undivided attention, and the results of which brings them great satisfaction.

Now to the great sawmill plant. There are five band headrigs in that mill, all 9 foot bands, and all using electric dogs. The power for the mill is combined electricity and steam. They claim for this mill an annual capacity of 200,000,000 feet. The other big unit of this plant is the planing mill, in which they have five new fast feed stickers that turn out lumber at the rate of 24O lineal. feet per minute, in addition to other modern equipment. This planer turns out a maximum of 800,000 feet of ldmber daily.

Besides the planer there is a big box factory, sash and door factory, and a re-manufacturing plant of remarkable size and equipment. The power plant is a very large unit of this institution producing centrally under one roof the driving power for the entire institution.

Their dry sheds hold twenty million feet of lumber.

Their total lumber stock on hand at all times in yards and sheds runs close to 75,000,000 feet.

They have a battery of sixty dry kilns, the biggest knorvn

Adnirristration tlrc zuorkl, an'cl a section of the trenten'd,ous blouer syste',n.

Their log pond at p!:esent has a capacity of four million feet of logs, but is being greatly enlarged.

The McCloud plant runs the year around.

The mill is unusually well equipped with fire prevention and safety devices. The fact that they had not reported an accident in their milling plant for six months previotts equipment possessed by any sawmill on earth. Of this battery, 52 arc of the blorver type of kiln, and 8 are natural draft. They are partly Moore kiins, and the remainder of the Northwest type. They hold 400,C00 feet of lumber at a time.

In the woods they have also discarded the horse and re- to the call of The "California Lumber Merchant" visitors, is indeed a remarkableirecord. placed him with caterpillar tractors, of both the ,Best and Holt variety. They have a great battery of these "Cats" hauling in their logs, and their logging equipment is the newest and most economical that money can buy. Their I

The plant'eoverq 200 acnes of ground.

One of the untiiual features of their equipment is a great shavings blower piie with a single span 3,100 feet long, said to be the longest of its kind on earth.

(Continued on Page 32) timber holdings comprise close to four billion feet, lying in Shasta and Siskiyou counties.

Here is the personnel that handles the great operation at McCloud: B. W. Lakin, General Manager; H. C. Braden, Asst. General Manager; C. V. Daveny, Office Manager; J. N. Heininger, Asst. Sales Manager; Logging Superintendent, E. E. Hall; Sawmill Superintendent, H. P. Tardy; Planing Mill Superintendent, F. I. Divers.

The McCloud River Lumber Company is a part of the