Meadow River Lumber Company
Encyclopedia
Rainelle, West Virginia
Rainelle is a town in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 1,545 at the 2000 census.-History:Rainelle was named for the Raine family. Thomas and his brother John Raine moved there from Pennsylvania in 1906 to exploit one of the last large stands of virgin hardwoods in...
from 1906 to 1975, was the largest hardwood
Hardwood
Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...
sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
in the world. It had three 9 feet (2.7 m) bandsaws under one roof. In 1928, during peak production, its 500 employees produced 31 million board feet (73 million cubic meters) of lumber
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
, cutting 3000 acres (12.1 km²) of virgin timber a year.
History
In 1903, the brothers Thomas and John Raine of Ironton, OhioIronton, Ohio
Ironton is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Lawrence County. The municipality is located in southern Ohio along the Ohio River. The population was 11,211 at the 2000 census. Ironton is a part of the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH, Metropolitan Statistical Area . As of the...
and later Empire, Pennsylvania joined a lumber firm operating near Evenwood in Randolph County
Randolph County, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 28,262 people, 11,072 households, and 7,661 families residing in the county. The population density was 27 people per square mile . There were 13,478 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile...
, West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
. Later, in 1906, they began purchasing 100000 acres (404.7 km²) of land, containing one of the last large stands of virgin hardwood in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, mostly on the Meadow River
Meadow River
The Meadow River is a tributary of the Gauley River, making its headwaters in Greenbrier County and terminating in Nicholas County of West Virginia. It is named for the grassy meadows wetlands which its upper watershed drains, and from which it springs...
drainage, in western Greenbrier County, West Virginia
Greenbrier County, West Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 34,453 people, 14,571 households, and 9,922 families residing in the county. The population density was 34 people per square mile . There were 17,644 housing units at an average density of 17 per square mile...
. Being 20 miles (32.2 km) to the nearest railroad mainline, they first formed the Sewell Valley Railroad Company to construct a spur line, which eventually evolved into the Meadow River Railroad. This spur was initially used to haul building materials into the wilderness area, and eventually to haul their products out to market. Mill construction began in 1909, and the first board was sawed in September, 1910. Ultimately the mill contained three 9 feet (2.7 m) bandsaws under one roof, making it the largest hardwood sawmill.
The plant and railroad used at least one Shay
Shay
-Sports figures:* Shay Abutbul, an Israeli footballer* Shay Brennan, popular name of Seamus Anthony Brennan, an Irish footballer* Shay Doron, a basketball player who has played shooting guard for the WNBA's New York Liberty...
engine, which was donated to the Cass Scenic Railroad in 1964, and has since fallen into disrepair.
The plant included a planing mill
Planing mill
A planing mill is a facility that takes cut and seasoned boards from a sawmill and turns them into finished dimensional lumber. Machines used in the mill include the planer and matcher, the molding machines, and varieties of saws...
with the capacity of turning out a million feet (2,360,000 cubic meters) of flooring, ceiling, siding and trim pieces a year. Six large kilns dried lumber for use in the planing mill.
3 miles (4.8 km) of lumber piles, some 40 feet (12.2 m) high, were stacked on the ten, 1300 feet (396.2 m) long lumber docks.
In 1913,the firm created the nearby town of Rainelle
Rainelle, West Virginia
Rainelle is a town in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 1,545 at the 2000 census.-History:Rainelle was named for the Raine family. Thomas and his brother John Raine moved there from Pennsylvania in 1906 to exploit one of the last large stands of virgin hardwoods in...
. Company-owned houses there were plastered and papered inside, painted white outside, and designed for sanitation, with modern plumbing and electricity. Each had a yard and a garden space surrounding it.
The original mill building was destroyed by fire in 1924. The employees were set to work building a new one, which was operational by March of he following year.
Meadow River lumber began the process called clearcutting
Clearcutting
Clearcutting, or clearfelling, is a controversial forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Clearcutting, along with shelterwood and seed tree harvests, is used by foresters to create certain types of forest ecosystems and to promote select species that...
in 1939.
Major products included flooring, hardwood shoe heels, furniture, and later moldings and trim. By the time the mill ceased operation, it was the world's largest producer of women's hardwood shoe heels and flooring. It was also the last of the Eastern United States' large independent wood producers.
The business was sold to Georgia-Pacific
Georgia-Pacific
Georgia-Pacific LLC is an American pulp and paper company based in Atlanta, Georgia, and is one of the world's leading manufacturers and distributors of tissue, pulp, paper, packaging, building products and related chemicals. As of Fall 2010, the company employed more than 40,000 people at more...
Corporation in 1970, and the mill was subsequently torn down in 1975.