INVESTORS CUSTOMER LOGIN SEARCH About | Our Businesses | Corporate Responsibility | Careers HISTORY Our Legacy Founded in 1903, we have a rich history in timberland management and forest products. The Potlatch Lumber Company was founded along the banks of the Palouse River in North Central Idaho. The rugged and colorful lumberjacks and lumber mill workers from our early founding years transitioned into modern day forestry professionals and wood products experts. Both were and continue to be admirers of the trees and of the forests where they grow. Explore highlights from our past 118 years. 1900 Frederick Weyerhaeuser and a group of investors founded Clearwater Timber Company, purchasing prime white pine forestland from railroad interests in North Central Idaho. 1903 Potlatch Lumber company was incorporated by Weyerhaeuser and other investors. “Potlatch” was borrowed from the Chinook word for a Native American celebration of goodwill and gift giving. Frederick Weyerhaeuser’s son, Charles, was named as the first president. 1906 Potlatch’s first sawmill was built on the Potlatch River at what would become Potlatch, ID. The largest white pine mill in the world, the Potlatch mill was a technological marvel for its day. 1915 Edward Rutledge, a long-time partner of Frederick Weyerhaeuser, and other investors founded Rutledge Lumber Company and in 1915 constructed a sawmill in Coeur d’Alene, ID. 1926 Clearwater Timber Company investors constructed the Clearwater Mill in Lewiston, ID. It quickly stole the title as the world’s largest white pine mill from the Potlatch, ID mill. 1931 Financial challenges during The Great Depression led to the merger of the three companies: Potlatch Lumber Company, Rutledge Lumber Company, and Clearwater Timber Company. Their combined mills and forestland holdings were consolidated into Potlatch Forests, Inc. (PFI). More Info 1935 PFI also emphasized full utilization of wood resources through the development of new products. In the early 1930’s, Potlatch researcher, Robert Bowling, invented a commercial use for sawdust: Pres-to-logs. 1942 Like most companies during the era, PFI joined the war effort by directing its traditional products toward military end uses. With men at war, women took production jobs in the mills. 1949 The post-war years brought a boom in housing construction as returning vets began forming families. PFI’s first plywood plant, constructed in 1949 at Lewiston, ID helped fill the need for building materials. 1950 In 1950, the Company started up its first pulp and paperboard mill. The mill turned sawmill wastes to bleached pulp that was made into paperboard for packaging materials. 1953 PFI grew and expanded production in Idaho and other states, and into new businesses such as packaging and real estate. In 1953, PFI acquired a paper mill in Pomona, CA. 1958 During the mid-to-late 1950’s, PFI merged with Southern Lumber Company and Bradley Lumber Company in Arkansas and expanded pulp and paperboard production at Lewiston, ID. More Info 1960's During the 1960’s, PFI expanded its operations and holdings through 24 acquisitions, maintaining offices or facilities in 25 cities, 12 states and three foreign countries. 1963 In 1963, PFI joined with Swanee Paper to produce “private label” tissue products from pulp in Lewiston, ID. The fledgling business would become increasingly important to the Company in later years. 1964 PFI merged with Minnesota-based Northwest Paper Company in 1964, adding Northwest’s printing papers business and forestlands to Potlatch’s portfolio. 1965 Through the mid-1960’s, the Company became a supplier of paperboard for packaging in Japan, establishing links for what would become a growing international business. More Info 1968 The Company also continued to grow in Idaho, purchasing a plywood plant in St. Maries and building a new plywood mill at Pierce in the mid-1960’s. 1973 In 1973, Potlatch Forest, Inc. (PFI), became Potlatch Corporation, reflecting the Company’s diversification and expansion. 1975 Continuing its tradition of complete wood utilization, Potlatch built a particleboard plant at Post Falls, ID in 1975, to use dry sawdust, chips and shavings from the region’s many sawmills and plywood plants. 1977 The Company also extended full utilization in Arkansas with the construction of a pulp and paperboard facility in 1977 to use local species and sawmill waste. 1977 In the forest, the Company refined its reforestation program with the establishment of a seedling nursery in Lewiston. Seedlings grown at Lewiston and planted in the forest, in combination with natural seeding from surrounding forest, enhanced reforestation progress in Idaho. More Info 1981 Based on earlier work with composite panels in Idaho, Potlatch used Minnesota’s abundant aspen in a new panel product called oriented strand board (OSB), made from cross-oriented layers of wood strands. Recognizing the panel’s potential, Potlatch built mills in Bemidji and Cook in the early 1980’s. Trademarked OXBoard, the new panel proved a substitute for plywood. 1983 In the early 1980’s, boom-and-bust housing cycles brought on by high interest rates resulted in serious challenges for the forest products industry. The original Potlatch and Rutledge mills, now outdated, were closed and other Potlatch-owned mills in Idaho were sold or closed. The Rutledge site later became the Coeur d’Alene Resort and Golf Course. 1986 As the industry began to recover in the mid-1980’s, Potlatch began modernizing its production facilities throughout the Company. At Lewiston, a new tissue machine was installed to meet demands for “private-label” products. Pulp production was increased and the largest waste-wood-fired power boiler was constructed to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. 1990 Facing on-going economic and industry changes, Potlatch Corporation continued to modernize its operations by upgrading its pulp, paper and paperboard facilities in Idaho, Arkansas and Minnesota to produce better quality products with fewer pollutants. More Info 1991 The Company’s private label tissue business at Lewiston upgraded its first machine and added another new tissue machine, designed to produce premium quality products in response to consumer research. As a result, the company’s private label market share for bathroom and facial tissue and napkins and towels showed dramatic improvement through the decade. More Info 1992 Potlatch Corporation’s Resource Management Division (RMD) is responsible for managing the company’s 17,000-acre hybrid poplar plantation in northeastern Oregon, near the town of Boardman. This unique plantation was developed in 1992 to supplement the company’s fiber needs. 1998 To meet the needs of its expanding private label customers, Potlatch added converting facilities at Las Vegas in 1993. By the late 1990’s, the Company’s private label customers were expanding eastward, requiring the addition of a converting plant in the Midwest. 1998 To meet changing markets, Potlatch rebuilt its plywood operations to produce industrial-grade plywood for specialty applications that were less vulnerable to commodity competition. 2000 Upgrades at Potlatch’s Cypress Bend paperboard plant improved the surface quality and printability of its products. Cypress Bend paperboard is now competitive with the nation’s best producers for the converted market for high-end packaging, particularly for drugs and cosmetics. Quality and productivity initiatives at the Lewiston paperboard plant show progress. More Info 2001 Following its long tradition of sound and scientific forest stewardship, the Company embraced the concept of independent, third-party certification of its management practices. More Info 2002 Potlatch invested in its lumber operations in Idaho and Arkansas and by 2003 increased overall softwood lumber production by 16 percent. The Company also exited the hardwood lumber business permanently with the 2002 sale of one mill in Arkansas. More Info 2002 Potlatch resource managers explored new revenue opportunities through conservation easements in Idaho and Minnesota, and through recreational and hunting land leases in Minnesota. In 2002, the company joined with the Trust for Public Lands in a precedent-setting conservation easement project on Potlatch’s Idaho timberlands.Conservation easements permanently protect land from development and protect fish and wildlife habitat. 2004 By the close of 2003, the new tissue machine at Las Vegas was completed. The machine started up in early January 2004, making an ultra-towel that consumers consider equal to the major brands. More Info 2006 Potlatch converts from a “C” corporation to a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) on January 1, 2006 to better position the Company for forestland acquisitions and to offer greater overall value to its shareholders. 2007 Potlatch acquires 180,000 acres of timberland in Central Idaho. More Info 2008 All pulp-based businesses are spun off into a new independent company named Clearwater Paper Co. The Clearwater lumber mill is included in the spin-off. 2015 Potlatch acquires approximately 200,000 acres of timberland in Alabama and Mississippi. 2016 Potlatch divests Central Idaho timberlands. 2018 Potlatch merges with Arkansas-based Deltic Timber in an all-stock transaction, creating a leading domestic timberland owner and top-tier wood products manufacturer. The combination brings together two leading timberland owners and wood products manufacturers, while also combining two highly complementary and successful real estate businesses. The combined company changes its name to PotlatchDeltic Corporation. More Info 2019 PotlatchDeltic sells the El Dorado Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF) business to Roseburg Forest Products for a purchase price of approximately $92 million, consisting of $63 million in cash and assumption of $29 million of revenue bond obligations. The MDF mill had been part of the assets acquired in the merger with Deltic Timber (Del-Tin Fiber). 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