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Snoqualmie Valley Record • Wednesday, June 28, 2017 • 7
WOMEN in Business
2017
Photo Credit: XJill Labberton
Local Women Making A Difference
A supplement to the Snoqualmie Valley Record
After growing up in the family business, Everson leaves to pursue new career By EVAN PAPPAS Staff Reporter
North Bend’s Ole Cedar Mill Mini Storage is ending its run as a family business after more than 60 years. Cindy Everson, former owner of the storage center and descendent of the Butters family, which began the operations as a cedar mill in the 1950s, is leaving the business after 28 years. In her place, Everettbased Coast Real Estate Management will operate the local storage business for the Skagit Valley Indian Tribe, the new owners of the business. Ole Cedar Mill Mini Storage, located on the corner of SE North Bend Way and SE 140th Street, isn’t just a longtime Valley business, Everson said. It originated from the cedar mill bought in the 1950s by her grandfather, George McKean Butters. Butters bought the mill from Pierce and Stow and cut old growth cedar to create shingles and shakes. Everson’s family moved to North Bend about 10 years after Butters began operating the mill and helped him run the business. “We moved here in 1961 and my grandpa ran the mill until he passed away.
I worked in the office here, my mom worked in the office and my dad worked at the mill with my brother,” she said. “After my grandfather died, my dad and mom took it over. We had that until about 1989 or so, until the old growth cedar was gone.” Once that cedar was gone, Everson’s father Tom Thornton decided to change up the business and become North Bend’s first storage facility in 1989. With the change in industry, Everson took on the primary role of running the storage center with her sister, Jamie. The two sisters ran the day-to-day operations for 15 years before Jamie moved to Arizona to run a restaurant. In 2015, the family sold the business to the Skagit Valley Indian Tribe, which uses Coast Real Estate Management to handle its business operations. Everson stayed on to help transition the business, but is now saying goodbye to her long-time home. “I wanted to make sure the transition was smooth. I was going to stay for a year and now it’s been a little over two and I just decided that it was time to go,” she said. Everson is going to take
Evan Pappas/Staff Photo
Cindy Everson, outside of the main office at Ole Cedar Mill Mini Storage. The office building was also used during the properties years as a Cedar Mill. some time off before pursuing a new career. Before looking forward, Everson reminisced on some of the memories she
had growing up on the property. In 1963, the mill burned down when a spark from a burner ignited a pile of
sawdust; Everson was only 2 years old. “We had a burner which gave us all kinds of problems with the EPA
because they were always out here giving us tickets,” she said. “If the East wind SEE MILL, 7