MONTANA LOG TRUCKING NEWS

Today, his grandsons. L. Peter, Kurt, David and Tom run the lumber mill that Hans founded in 192 8. Last month, the Larson announced that the mill will close this summer because it can no longer get enough logs to process.

The closure w ill make the end of a colorful family saga. Pete Larson is president and CEO of American Timber; his brother. Kurt. is production manager and handles maintenance and personnel. They are sons of the late Lawrence Larson. Their cousins. Dave. who is in charge of sales, marketing and the relatively new compost plant, and Tom. who is responsible for log pro­curement and timber sales are sons of Holly Larson. Holly Larson was in the logging business, too; he operated Royal Logging in Colum­bia Falls. Other Larson family members are shareholders in American Timber -13 of them in all. The shareholders, said Pete Larson, "agonized for a year" over the decision to shut down;

The family atmosphere at American Timber is typified by the feelings of Connie Fletcher. secretary for 20 years. A former cocktail waitress at the Outlaw Inn. she is according to Pete. "Everybody comes to see Connie." Fletcher drives nearly an hour every morning from her home in the Blankenship area to get to her job at Olney. (Work starts up around 5 a.m.) She can't talk about the closure without choking up.

The Larsons themselves, a warmly good-natured bunch, remain philosophical, even thankful, for American Timber. "The business and environment have been an enormous blessing to the family for 72 years," says Pete. We don't leave with bitterness of anger. "There's a change that's happening because of the way the rest of the country views things - and they've got the votes." "We've been able to harvest the resources and provide many jobs. and we're grateful for that. Now we have to make do with different circum­stances."

The Larsons have been key figures in the history of the timber business in the Flathead Valley - in fact. in the entire history of the area. When Hans arrived in America, he homesteaded in Minnesota, where immigrant Scandinavians congregated. In 1920. he came to Kalispell to seek his fortune. He tried fishing, farming and logging. As an independent "gyppo" logger, he cut poles and decked logs at Blankenship for transport downriver to Somers Lumber Co. One spring, Pete said. Hans moved 22 million board feet of lumber down the North Fork to the main Flathead River and on to Flathead Lake. Hans had a logging camp in Glacier National Park. He did very w ell in the 1920's, but in the Great Depression at the end of the decade, he lost everything, according to his grandson.

In 1928. still a roving logger, he incorporated himself in business as American Timber. With horses and the labor of 100 men. he decked logs in the North Fork. By the 1930's he had built a little stream railroad to haul logs from Lake Mary Ronan to the Flathead Lake dock at Dayton. "I used to go out to logging camps with my father and grandfather." Pete recalls. "Those are some of my best memories." In Minnesota. Hans had been a friend of D.C.. Dunham. who had a timber business. He urged Dunham to come to the Flathead. Dunham did. establishing Plum Creek Lumber Company in Columbia Falls. Later sold by Dunham's widow. Plum Creek is now a giant national timber company.

Lawrence returned from GE to become active in American Timber. By then. the company had become more than just a logging operation. Lawrence built portable sawmills to process railroad tics. After World War II. the state wanted to harvest logs in the Upper Whitefish area and encouraged the Larsons to build a mill at Olney. American Timber today stands on 140 acres of state-leased land. "My dad was ingenious and a builder", said Pete. He built the first mill here in 1946. By 19 70. the company was sawing smaller logs. and the 1946 mill was no longer efficient. It was abandoned, and a new mill was built. Meanwhile, Pete had graduated from Principia College in Illinois and started postgraduate work in engineering at University of Washington. But I lost interest and went to work in the woods, he said. Seeing opportunity, he started his own sawmill: "Nobody was interested in lodgepole. We made two-by-fours right in the woods." He and his crew did that for 10 years. Then his dad bought a new, stationary mill for small timber; it was more efficient than Pete's operation. He put me out of business, said Pete. but he needed me to harvest the logs. It was a special skill, because there arc so many pieces. In the mid-70's. Pete came into the office, and around 1980. he became president of the company. But my dad was still out here building things six months before he died in 1987. said Pete. Over the past 72 years, logging operations have seen big changes - all the way from horse logging to the use of cross cut saws and then chain saws. Now most trees arc clipped scissor like with a feller/buncher and moved by big. rubber tired rigs. What will happen to the Larsons and their extended employee "family" after the last log is milled in Olney'.  Pete says he is almost old enough to retire. He is a director of Glacier Bank and teaches an adult class at the Christian Center. He is thinking about going into missionary work. "We worked hard here. and my kids say. "Get a life. Dad." He and his wife. Donna (daughter of a woods worker) are the parents of seven grown children, only one of whom is employed at a mill. One is an M.D.. several are in computcr-related fields, one sells ambulances, one is in law school, "they all worked here in younger years." he said. but we encouraged them to follow their own inclinations. Tom. Dave, Kurt. like the rest of the personnel, will be looking for other work. American Timber is trying to help all of them assess their options. In the meantime, as they plan for and carry out the shutdown, says Pete, "We've got a year's hard work ahead of us."