Published May 2003

The Herald/ DAN BATES Hampton invests $15 million into mill Plant Manager Jerry Holmes monitors a complete log scan on a computer in a new section of the Darrington mill. The mill is able to get more lumber from its logs than previously possible due to the help of laser scanning.

By Eric Fetters
Herald Business Writer

Jerry Holmes paused in his stroll around the Darrington sawmill he oversees, grabbed a hooked pole and dislodged a half-cut log that had gone astray in the maze of conveyors.

Even with the newest machinery and numerous computers controlling the transformation of logs into crisply cut boards, some things still have to be done by hand.

But a year after Hampton Affiliates reopened the long-running mill at the foot of the Cascade Range, the company has invested $15 million into making it as efficient as possible.

“It’s quite a project. We essentially replaced the middle of the mill,” said Holmes, the mill’s general manager.

The company also has secured a steady supply of nearby timber to feed it.

The improvements have given Darrington residents more confidence about the future of the town’s largest employer.

“I think the amount of money they’re putting in means they’re going to keep operating that place,” said Richard Anderson, owner of the Sauk River Trading Post. “They seem like a good company.”

The optimism is in contrast to the town’s worry in fall 2001, when the mill’s original owner, Summit Timber Co., announced it would shut down and sell the mill after operating it for more than 40 years.

Hampton Affiliates, based in Portland, Ore., completed its purchase in February 2002 and reopened it last spring. This winter, the mill was shut for several weeks to allow the bulk of the renovation work to take place.

“When we bought the mill last year, the doors were closed, and it needed a major overhaul,” said Ron Parker, Hampton’s president and chief executive officer. “We strongly believed in the mill’s potential and admired the workers’ long tradition of producing a quality product, but we knew improvements were necessary for the mill to become competitive.”

From a new addition that enlarged the sawmill building by about 20 percent to fresh bright yellow paint on the catwalks crisscrossing above the machinery, signs of Hampton’s investment are evident. Two new groups of saws, called saw gangs, and new board edgers are among the modernized equipment recently installed.

With the updated equipment, the mill turns the seemingly simple task of cutting logs into a high-tech, precise art.

After the logs enter the mill, they run through a debarker. The conveyor systems then pull them through a laser scanner, which measures each log’s length and diameter.

After two parallel edges, both destined to become boards, are cut off, the center of the log passes through another scanner, which instantly determines how to cut the wood in order to get the most boards. The computer-controlled curve saw gang then adjusts to make the cuts. Unlike older straight saw gangs, the curve gang can adjust to a log’s curvature to produce straight boards.

“The curve saw allows almost full recovery of this lumber from a log,” Holmes said.

The cutting-edge equipment also allows the mill to produce a wider variety of precisely cut dimensional lumber, from 2-by-4 studs to 2-by-12s.

Especially at a time when the price for lumber is being pushed down by imports from Canada and overseas, being able to produce these boards as efficiently as possible is a necessity, Holmes said.

Getting all the new equipment along the production lines calibrated and running smoothly at full speed takes a while. As of late March, Holmes said the equipment was still being tweaked.

“Our first target is to cut 40,000 board feet per hour, and we’re about 80 percent there,” he said. “Once we’re up, we hope to eventually be at 50,000 board feet per hour.”

Hitting that target with two shifts a day would equal 200 million board feet a year, much more than was produced in recent years under Summit’s ownership. For comparison, it takes up to 18,000 board feet of lumber to frame the average 2,000-square-foot house.

When the mill adds back a second shift, the facility will employ 168 people, up from 151 at present, Holmes added.

About three-fourths of the wood going through the Darrington mill is hemlock, with Douglas fir making up the rest.

Of that, about 30 percent comes from 65,000 acres of commercial forestland in the northern Cascades that Hampton acquired in a land swap last summer. The company also has leased nine acres in Arlington to provide more space for drying and planing lumber and to give the company access to the area’s rail lines. That facility employs 40 additional workers.

After finishing his walk through the sawmill, Holmes said he has quickly felt at home in Darrington after moving in more than a year ago.

The feeling seems to be mutual. Judy Vanderward, who works at the JV Deli and service station just a couple blocks south of the mill, said most of the workers give generally good reviews of Hampton. She said the company has introduced itself to residents as well.

“They put an effort in the beginning to get to know the community, which was really nice,” she said.

The company invited residents to see the upgraded mill during an open house celebration April 18.

Related: Co-generation plant in works

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