History: The Good Old Days
1909 Miller Panorama of McCloud
In 1829, a party of Hudson Bay Company trappers and explorers, led by
Alexander Roderick McLeod, were the first white men
to travel through the valley where McCloud now stands. In the years that
followed a few hardy folks homesteaded in the beautiful Squaw Valley including
Joaquin Miller, later known as the Poet of the Sierras.
In
1892, A.F. Friday George built the first mill located in what
is now McCloud, but it failed because of the difficulty of hauling the
lumber over the hill by oxen. In 1897, the town of McCloud was finally
established by George W. Scott and William VanArsdale, founders of the McCloud
River Railroad Company. The railroad made it economically feasible
to transport the lumber to more populated areas. The two men also purchased
many of the small failed mills including the old Friday George mill and
named it the McCloud River Lumber Company. Thus began the lumber company
town of McCloud.
The McCloud River Lumber Company (known as Mother McCloud)
kept the town secure and prosperous. The homes were steam heated and electricity
was supplied by the mill. When your faucet leaked or a light burned out,
"you'd just call Mother McCloud and a crew would be over to fix it for
you" recalled a third-generation McCloud native. Those days ended in 1963
when U.S. Plywood Company purchased the mill, the railroad and the town.
In 1965, U.S. Plywood transferred town properties to John W. Galbreath
and Co. whose job was to help company towns make the transition to privatization.
The houses were then sold to the people living in them. The McCloud Community
Services District was formed and the utilities, such as water, sewer and
street lighting, were turned over to the district. They also assumed responsibilities
for fire and police protection, library services and some road maintenance.
U.S. Plywood promised that there would be years of employment and a good
economic future for the town as there were 50 years of timber to be cut.
But, after privatization the economy of the town began to deteriorate due
to the diminishing timber industry. U.S. Plywood, who had since merged
with Champion International Corp., tried hard to keep going, but the days
of the big timber companies were gone.
Industry in the 70's and 80's: The Timber Crisis
and the Birth
of the Modern Timber Industry
Thirteen years later, in 1979, Champion International closed the mill
for good because the timber industry had fallen upon hard times. They chose not
to retool and adapt their WWI era machinery quickly enough to survive
the changes in the timber industry. The McCloud
River Railroad whose well-being is so closely tied to the timber industry
hit its low point in 1985/86 when they hauled under 1000 carloads per year.
In 1987 it started to recuperate and became the
Shasta Sunset Dinner Train
in the mid-1990s.
In 1980, P&M Cedar Products, Inc. of Stockton, California
bought the McCloud mill and reopened the lumber facility. Founded in 1969
as a producer of pencil stock (used to meet 60% of the worlds pencil needs)
P&M Cedar Products has evolved into a progressive multi-dimensional
wood-products company with diversified, worldwide interests. The P&M
McCloud mill is a state-of-the-art fully computerized operation which supplies
premium commercial lumber products for custom home builders, and appearance-
grade consumer products sold to do-it-yourselfers in home center stores
throughout the nation.
The lands once
held by Champion International are today owned by the John Hancock Mutual
Life Insurance Company and managed by Campbell Timberland Management.
Land management companies see their role as one of stewardship
over the forests making sure that they survive in a healthy diverse way.
