The Long-Bell Operations at Weed, California

Try to visualize a big happy family of about two thousand workers, all nicely housed and working under splendid conditions, under the direction of a group of men of as high type as it is possible to find, anywhere, and you may have a preliminary mental sketch of the Long-8e11 Lumber Company's operations at Weed, Siskiyou County,

It u'ould be as hard for a reader to obtain a thorough knowledge of this plant, from printed words and pictures, as it would be for any person to set down on paper a complete description.

Among the high lights on this big Pine operation are. of course, the immensity of their various plants, the tremendous amount of stock they produce, the varieties. and a lot of other interesting things, but, the outstanding feature is undoubtedly the fact that this town is a big liappy family, as stated in the first paragraph, every occupant-is connected in some way with the Long-Bell Lumbei Company, is having his or her welfare looked after by conscientious executives, really interested in this part of their duties and that as a community, one would have to go far to find a better.

The town of Weed is.situated at the foot of mighty Mt. !!r_as!a, towrcrrng wrr,r perpetual snorv to a heighl oi 14,380 feet. The setting is highly picturesque, the peak se-e1s to entirely surround the city, and they are blessed with very mild winters and nice cool summers. Thev have a total population of about three thousand.

The hotel, bank, stores, theatre, in fact all business enterprises in Weed are operated by the company. While the business is conducted as the Weed Lum6er -Comparry, it is universally understood thai the Long-Bell interesis own and control the entire operation.

The Weed Iaumber Company was formed many years ago by Abner _Weed, and the town was founded on iis pres_ :lt rtg.This_Company h1g for many years for its presiient, Mr. Elmer_ H. Cox, well known in California'pine cir_ cles, and Mr. Otis Johnson acted as vice-president. Long_

Bell gained control in 1918, taking over the entire op!r-ation, -including the logging activities, and retaining Mr. J. M. White as general manager. -

J. I\I. (Jude) Whlte is much better known in the northern part bi tne state than he is south of the Tehachapi, through his having served the Weed Lumber Company, ftom the bottom, Jor an unbroken twenty years. He started in a humble position with Mr. Weed in 1905, gaining the position of general manag'er in 1916. In describing this fine gentleman many terms could be used and probably none of them adequate. We have been told that he is valued by the Long-Bell Lumber. Company, hot only for his high efficiency. He is a keen, affable, kind, generous, hospitable, approachable man, and one that it is a pleasure to have met and talked to.

Llighty Mt. Shasta, Weed, in the f oreground.

The general superintendent at Weed is Mr. W. P. Sexton. He came west but three years ago, to supervise production at Weed; is an old Long-Bell man, and was in charge at their Bon Ami, l.ouisiana, plant for many years. Mr. Sexton is also a very fine fellow, and has the reputation all through the state of "knowing his stuff."

A. D. (Rock) Rockwood is treasurer and office manager. He is the type of man one just naturally calls "Rock"'fifteen minutes after having met him. A big hearted fel- low, keen on sports, especially for the fine trout fishing in the McCloud River and Squaw Creek: has been with the company for a long time, and is generally loved by everyone there.

Mr. John Ekwall is paymaster, H.J. Barrington is manlger o{ factory sales, A. K. McClintock, maniger of lumber sales, Jack Womble is sawmill superintendint, W. H. (Bill) King is "King" in the sash and door factory, R. p. Davison runs the veneer plant and genial C. W. Murphy is logging superintendent.

No attempt will be made on a detailed description of their workings, with the exception of a few figurei to give an impression of the size of the operation.

The sawmill is of the latest type, four bancl. Thev use the one-man carriage system and, with the use of ibout one hundred and fifty m9n i1 the sawmill proper, they can produce better than a half million feet per day. They have an immense -power house furnishing iignt ana power for the entire mill, and for the town.

Ninety-nine per cent of their cut is White pine, and the remaining small ,amount is Wh.ite Fir, Cedar and Sugar Pine, They are_ bringing very fine logs dou,.n, the b;;l-;f r,r'hich go into their large ,oetreer plani.

Logs are hauled about forty-five miles, part way on their own tracks and the remaining distance by the'southern Pacific.

The veneer plant is one of the two in the state, the other such operation being at Westr,vood, operated by the ReJ Klver Lumber LomDanv.

..Log: are- boiled for'fou, days in huge vats and are sliced into long sheets to be mjde into ti-reir fr;ef, a"rlii" of veneers. And it should be known tf,at the if#;;il

Lumber Company consumes the larger portion of the tremendous amount of veneers that they produce. Their sash and door factory uses an immense quantity of the stock that they make.

The lumber cut in the sawmill is sent direct to the drving piles, and a large percentage of it is taken from theie direct to the sash and door plant to be worked and graded. This plant is larger than most buildings of its kind. The main building is four stories with an addition of two stories, on the north side. Mr. King'states that they employ about 500 min and women here, are constantlv oper-

(Continued on Page 44) ating over 400 machines, producing 3,000 windows and 1,800 doors, per day. It is interesting that their products in this plant-include over 800 varieties and sizes.

The total number of employes at Weed is close to two thousand.

It is possible that California contains mills with as -higtt- efiicieniy as that displayed at Weed, but it is doubtful if there is- one that would rate higher. Every executiye seems constantly alert for new plans and ideas to increase output, raise their standard of grades and lower the cost of manufacture.

As stated above, the.cutting is about forty-five miles east of Weed, on the foothill slopes of Mt. Shasta. They control at present about 16O,000 acres of timber, enough for many years to come, working at full capacity.

Mr. White makes the statement that their plant is not the largest, but that their entire- organization is proud of their impression that they are ofiering the lead in quality.

He also stressed the point that the White Pine produced at Weed is "Pure California White Pine."

A visit to Weed would be an education to any lumberman, wholesaler or retailer.