Southport Lumber Company Tour - April 26, 2011, 1 pm

About 15 Coos Curry Small Woodlands members and friends attended a tour of Southport Lumber Company in North Bend on April 26th. The tour was very interesting and covered both the milling and planing of wood received at the mill.

Attendees were taken through the wood yards, where several million board feet of dimensional lumber is held at any given time. Then they went through the planing area, proceeded through the arera where the logs are milled to size, and the were able to see the control room which oversees the whole operation.

Built in 2005, the Southport Lumber mill is state-of-the-art; all aspects of the process - from bucking the logs to planing the finished dimensional wood - is calculated and controlled by a sophisticated computer system. It was very interesting to see how the logs move through the facility and each individual log was cut for the most effective use.

Southport receives soft woods (primarily douglas fir and hemlock) and manufactures commodity lumber products for new homes and remodeling. They distribute to both wholesale and retail outlets through various channels, including big box dealers, professional builders and export overseas. You might be purchasing local lumber from Southport whenyou buy 2 x 4's at Lowes or Home Depot!