The Fir Milling and Planing Company produced lumber at its mill in Ashland, Ore., from 1946 to 1962. Seeking access to the Eastern Seaboard, the owners located the mill next to the Southern Pacific tracks on Tolman Creek Road.
By 1950, nearly all the company’s business was shipped out of Oregon, half of the exports going to a single retail lumber yard in Midland Park, N.J. It was quite a journey.
First, loaded Southern Pacific boxcars took the Sunset Route to Corsicana, Texas. From there, the boxcars went to St. Louis, Mo. on the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad. They crossed St. Louis on the Alton and Southern belt line and were taken by the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad to Chicago. The Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern Railroad took the cars across Chicago where the Chesapeake and Ohio pulled them to East Buffalo. There the Erie Railroad headed to New York City. Finally the Susquehanna and Western Railroad delivered the lumber boxcars to Midland, N. J.
It wasn’t easy, but that’s how Ashland lumber built New Jersey homes.
Source: Johnson, Robert C. "A Study of the Major Events in the History of Fir Milling and Planing Company from 1946 to 1962." A term paper presented to Dr. F. Hines, Southern Oregon College, in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for History of the Pacific Northwest, Chap. V. Ashland, Ore.: Southern Oregon University, 1962. Print.
