Old Missoula

Doctor, Veterinarian, Banker Start Intermountain Lumber

In 1946 a physician, a doctor of veterinary medicine and a banker had a vision of the timber industry’s future in Montana.

The medical doctor was H. H. Koessler, rancher and stockman; the veterinarian was Dayton M. Warren, at that time manager of the Missoula Mercantile Co. Feed and Grain Department, and the banker was Lanning Macfarland, a vice president of Chicago’s Northern Trust Co.

The three World War II veterans became associated in 1946 in a ranching venture near Helmville, the WineGlass Ranch Inc.

Decide to Build Sawmill

Observing the postwar lumber demand and noting that Dr. Koessler’s Gordon Ranch, in the Swan River country, possessed about 12 million board feet in a stand of Ponderosa pine, they decided to build a sawmill and enter the lumber business.

They built the WineGlass Ranch Inc. sawmill on the Gordon Ranch, then formed the Intermountain Lumber Co. in Missoula to build and operate a planer mill to handle the sawmill’s output. Intermountain shipped its first carload of finished lumber in the fall of 1947.

Growth Is Rapid

Today the company has two finishing plants and a sawmill in Missoula, a sawmill at Darby, and a sawmill and finishing plant at Salmon, Idaho. It also owns three subsidiaries in Missoula; Tree Farmers Inc., a timber procurement and logging management firm; the Missoula Pres-To-Log Co., and Clarks Fork Co., operating a studmill on the site of the local mill.

In 1948, having harvested the Gordon Ranch timber, the WineGlass mill ran out of raw material, so the mill was sold. To keep its Missoula plant going, the company relied on purchases of rough green lumber from various small independent sawmills.

For Lumber Supply

To insure a green lumber supply, the company in 1953 purchased the Sentinel Mill in Missoula, the Edens Mill in Darby and the Benson Mill in Salmon. Timber was obtained in large measure from the national forests through competitive bidding with other firms for timber sales offered by the Forest Service at auction or on a sealed bid basis with specified minimum bid basis with specified minimum bids, representing the government’s appraisal of fair market value.

In 1951 Intermountain formed Tree Farmers, Inc. to handle the orderly procurement of stumpage, evaluation of government offerings and the management of sales purchased. The Thornton Lumber Co. joined in this venture.

In 1953, Dr. Warren, general manager of the company, died, a great loss to the firm.

Ira C. Keller, former executive vice president of Container Corporation of America, joined the Intermountain Board of Directors in 1954. Keller, currently president of Western Kraft Corp., brought to Intermountain the realization that in western Montana there was an annual production of sawmill waste sufficient to supply the needs of a good-sized pulp mill. He was instrumental in bringing the Waldorf Paper Products Co. of St. Paul to Missoula to construct such a plant.

Missoula sawmills soon realized that those who wished to supply chips to the new industry would have to install expensive log debarking and chipping facilities. To avoid expensive duplication of facilities, Intermountain effected a merger with the Thornton interests in the fall of 1956 and took over operation of the latter’s Missoula plant. Debarking and chipping facilities were installed at the former Thornton mill, now the Intermountain Missoula Sawmill.

In December 1956 the Sentinel Mill, operated as the Wine Glass Mill, was closed and eventually scrapped with most employes being absorbed into the expanding Intermountain operations.

Koessler, Intermountain president, says: “We realize that our company is engaged in perhaps the most competitive manufacturing industry in the United States and is largely dependent on the government for its raw material. We feel very strongly that our basic security lies with getting more and more out of the same log; in other words, further manufacture, as well as increased efficiency of manufacturing processes already in use.”

The company recently added at its Missoula Plant 2, a factory whose purpose is to raise the values obtainable from logs through the application of new manufacturing processes and techniques. Chief among these is the process known as “fingerjointing.” In this, usable portions are cut out of waste or less valuable lumber and joined together to form longer pieces of higher grade material.