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Houston, who founded A.C. Houston Lumber Co. in 1884. Houston's journey began in Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle where the company followed the western expansion of the railroad and cattle market. The only way for Houston to serve his growing number of customers was to open lumber yards in more than 100 locations across the old west.

In 1926, the business was passed to his son Max. The company almost failed in the Great Depression, but through good management and sheer determination it pulled through.

In the 1940s, the company consolidated and a search for a new market after WWII brought them in 1948 to Las Vegas. They arrived there about the same time as gangster Bugsy Siegel.

Today, A.C. Houston yards are found in five states. The corporate headquarters is in Kansas, but half of the company's 400 employees work at their largest operation in Las Vegas.

Ganahl Lumber Co. is the oldest lumber yard in Southern California. It also began in 1884 when Christian Ganahl moved west from St. Louis. A lumber company in Los Angeles was for sale and he seized the opportunity. The C. Ganahl Lumber Co. flourished, serving customers among the 22,0O0 people who made up Los ln 1927, Ernest opened a yard in the mountain resort town of Lake Arrowhead. During the Depression, the Arrowhead yard thrived because the movie industry was booming and Hollywood stars were building summer homes. In fact, sales at the Lake Arrowhead yard were higher than those in Anaheim during the Depression and they carried the company through this dark economic period. This was quite an accomplishment considering the Arrowhead yard was only open six months of the year and the only way to get up and down the mountain was a two-lane gravel road.

Angeles. Although it was small at the time, there was a considerable amount of building and many people were moving west. Railroad transportation to California from New York was $1.

By 1904, Ganahl had added two more yards, one in Anaheim and another in Los Angeles. Two years after the Anaheim operation opened, Christian took another risk and added a new product-plywood.

Up to this time, building materials were transported by horse. It wasn't untll 1922 (the year The Merchant was founded) when Christian's nephew, Ernest, joined the firm that trucks were first used for deliveries.

In 1934, Ernest completely took over the firm and eventually changed the name to Ernest Ganahl Lumber.

After WWII, Ernest's son, John, returned home and joined the family business. Ernest passed away in 1959 and John assumed full control of the company. In 1964, John changed the name to Ganahl Lumber Co.

The Seventies was a time of growth for Ganahl Lumber. A third branch yard was established in Corona when the family purchased a Hayward Lumber Co. yard.

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