tOS-CAL LUilTBER CO.

Wholesale Distributors

SUGAR & PONDEROSA PINE

Sourhwesl Lumber Mills Building

Bigger M:ll crt Flogsrojf, Artz.

(From Arizona Daily Sun, June 2, 1954)

Construction of a $lfu mrllion addition to the Flagstaff plant of Southwest Lumber Mills, Inc., is underway and scheduled for completion by December 15, J. B. Edens, president of the big firm, said today.

The major project rvill be the erection of a 300x600-foot steel building, the largest structure under a single roof in northern Arizona. Another large project will be construction of 10 cinderbrick dry kilns.

These two projects will cost about $600,000, according to Freeman Schultz, vice-president and general manager of the local division.

Equipment costing about $900,00O will be installed as soon as the big building is completed. Preliminary 'rvork on the site is being done by the lumber company's olvn crews. Contract for construction of the building and kilns and installation of machinery has been awarded to Dickman, Pickens and Bond, of Little Rock, Ark., a nationally known firrn specializing in sawmill construction.

The huge plant addition will include an automatic stacker for the kilns, an automatic unstacker, dry sorting chain, rework plant, rough dry storage, planing mill, surface lumber storage and shipping dock. Construction will require about 20 carloads of cen-ient, Mr. Schultz said.

The big building will house everything but the kilns and is engineered for maximum efficiency in handling lumber. Raw lumber will move directly from the all-steel sawmill, built only a ferv years ago, to the new structure for processing, treatment, storage and shipment' The building will provide shipping dock facilities for 12 freight cars at a time.

Clifford Campbell is superintendent of construction in charge of operations for the big Arkansas firm. R. A. Braser of Southwest Mills, Flagstaff, is 'coordinating the various aspects of the big project.

Raw lumber leaving the sawmill will be handled by huge cranes, a 60-foot one to serve the dry sorter and rework plant, and a lOGfoot one to service the rough shed and deliver lumber to the planing mill. Trucks can be loaded and unloaded by both cranes

The i0 specially designed dry kilns rvill be able to handle the entire mill cut, Schultz said. Lumber rvill not be exposed to sunshine from the time it leaves the saws until it is delivered to the customer.

When the new plant is completed, the company rvill be able to operate 49 weeks a year by decking logs during the open months. "This is going to be one of the ferv really 'engineered' salvmills in the west," Mr' Schultz said' "It's an innovation to put so much of the operation under one roof, but right in line u'ith the present trend in manufacture."

The completed plant 'ivill be able to handle the entire annual cut of 44/z million feet, Schultz said' The old Saginarv mill, now running two shifts, 'ivill be closed dorvn permanently when the additions are placed in use' The Southrvest sarvmill is nolv shut dowr-r to facilitate construction.

Southwest Lumber Mills, Inc., rvith headquarters at I'hoenix, is one of the top 1O companies in the lumber industry in the U.S. Last year the firm cut 113 million feet in the Flagstafi and NcNary divisions.

Most of the logs processed at the Flagstaff plant come from Happy Jack about 40 miles south of here in Coconino National Forest.

Helms qnd Brown Chqnge Nqme To Western Lumber Sqles Co.

Stan Helms and Frank Brown have announced that, effective July 1, the Helms Lumber Co. will oPerate under the name of Western Lumber Sales Company' They will continue to operate at the same location,2l5 Market Street, San Francisco; phone: YUkon 2-04n, and teletype: s.F. 671.

Higgins ls Sclles Monoger

Dli Higgins, who has beenlssistant sales manager for Pickering I umber Corporation at Standard, California, for the past two years, has succeeded Walter S. Kennon in the position of sales manager.