'Still sawing'

Old document verifies Stoltze's 110-year legacy in the Flathead

By LYNNETTE HINTZE/Daily Inter Lake

When Mary Tombrink Harris recently came across the Articles of Incorporation for the State Lumber Co. - the mill that later became F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Co. - it was like striking gold.

The mill records, found in a batch of old papers her cousin had given her for their grandparents' farm, verified what she had suspected for some time but couldn't prove until now: The Stoltze mill is the oldest privately owned, operational lumber mill in the Northwest.

Dated Dec. 10, 1898, the incorporation papers reveal the humble beginnings of the mill 110 years ago, with $12,000 in capital stock and 120 shares subscribed.

"Ron [Buentemeier] and I have been trying to prove this for 10 to 15 years, that it's the oldest privately owned mill still sawing," Tombrink said.

Tombrink, a Whitefish historian, and Buentemeier, Stoltze vice president and general manager who retired a year ago after 43 years at the mill, have collaborated on piecing together a detailed history of the mill.

"When W.E. Hodgson [Tombrink's grandfather] moved to the Flathead in 1896, his first job was at this mill, then called the Hunt-Hollister Mill," Tombrink said.

It operated the first couple of years on the west side of the Flathead River, south of the Montana Veterans Home.

The mill was relocated to the Whitefish River in 1901, to a spot on the east side of the river about a quarter-mile south of Hodgson Road and very near Tombrink's grandparents' farm. Availability of logs and flooding on the main stem of the Flathead River likely played into the decision to relocate, Buentemeier said.

"It was a thriving community in 1905," Harris said about the mill.

Through the years she has gleaned stories from old-timers who remembered what mill life was like more than a century ago, detailing everything from her grandmother Mame Hodgson's legendary baking-powder biscuits to the lumberjacks' "boozing" after payday. Harris also documented information about the early-day "river pigs," the men who would balance on the logs to keep them from jamming up the river.

"His work was extremely dangerous, since many of the men couldn't swim," Harris wrote in one account about life at the State Mill. "And if a river pig fell into the cold water, he was soon overcome with hypothermia. Nevertheless, fear played no part in the life of a seasoned river pig."

While State Lumber Co. chugged along, F.H. Stoltze was making his mark as a successful entrepreneur. He and a couple of other businessmen formed Enterprise Lumber Co. in 1909 at Kila. Some time later he started Empire Lumber Co. near the current road junction of Truman Creek and Mount Creek, Buentemeier noted in a history he's compiled on Stoltze.

Stoltze also formed an alliance with Great Northern Railway owner James Hill.

"Mr. Hill wanted someone to build stores along the railroad to supply the needs of the railroad as well as those of the settlers who they wanted to move west," he said.

Stoltze had a contract for 10 towns in North Dakota, where he platted lots and sold them, in addition to supplying lumber.

BY 1917, timberlands in the vicinity of the State Lumber Co. mill had been depleted, and the following year State Lumber Co. was reorganized. Starting in the early winter of 1918 the equipment and buildings were moved to the Half Moon site where F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Co. now operates the mill.

"F.H. Stoltze was able to buy 10,000 acres north of the current mill," Buentemeier said. "In those days that was a tremendous amount of timber."

Construction of the Half Moon Mill took five years, with the first logs sawn in May 1923. It was a single band and gang sawmill with the capacity to saw 100,000 board feet in an eight-hour shift.

And it was a community unto itself, with a new bunkhouse, cookhouse, store, and several homes at the Half Moon site. At one time there were 32 company homes.

During the first year at Half Moon, State Lumber Co. acquired a 32-ton Shay locomotive to use in logging the area.

When a devastating fire swept through the North Valley and into Glacier National Park in 1929, that Shay engine was suspected of producing the sparks that ignited the fast-moving flames.

"The investigation could not prove this to be true," Buentemeier said. "No claims were ever filed."

Nevertheless, because of the concern for potential claims, F.H. Stoltze's son, John, who had taken over the family business by then, foreclosed on State Lumber Co. and the assets were transferred to Stoltze in 1935.

During the Great Depression the mill and logging operation temporarily shut down at times because of the poor economy, but by the beginning of World War II, it was back to full capacity.

There were challenges through the years. In 1945 Stoltze's planing mill and loading facilities were destroyed by fire, and because the war made it difficult to get replacement equipment, it took until early 1947 to get the mill back in production.

In March 1956 another fire destroyed the entire sawmill.

"Part of the log slip and green chain were all that was saved," Buentemeier said. By mid-1957 a new mill was up and running.

TODAY THE Stoltze mill is one of the most modern operations of its kind, and Buentemeier credits hard-working mill employees and the Stoltze family's investment in the facility for its survival. It's a blend of old and new technology that yields maximum efficiency. The company has spent millions on new equipment in recent years, yet the 1909 boilers hauled from Stoltze's mill at Kila in 1918 still operate.

Stoltze always has been on the cutting edge of technology. In 1982 it was the first mill in Montana to have computerized setworks on the head rig, and it was one of the first mills to have computerized setworks on the edger.

The company currently is considering a co-generation plant to utilize waste wood and scraps to generate electricity, a testament to Stoltze's adaptability.

But all the latest technology won't help if there isn't timber available to process, and keeping a steady supply of logs remains a constant challenge, Buentemeier said.

He's no longer at the helm of the mill, but his management style - instilled by F.H. Stoltze not long after Buentemeier began work there in 1964 as a forester - is the legacy he left.

During his first encounter with Stoltze, Buentemeier remembers taking him on a tour of the company's forest land and asking him if there was anything special he wanted him to do in his new job there.

"He told me, 'Just manage it as if you owned it,'" he recalled.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com