Oregon-American Lumber Company

The Oregon-American Lumber Company was one of the last railroad logging operations in Oregon. From 1922-1957 the company produced Douglas fir lumber in Vernonia, Oregon, near Portland. David C. Eccles founded the company in 1917 and the Portland, Astoria and Pacific shortly later. The railroad came to Vernonia, Oregon in July 1922 and the lumber mill was constructed in early 1923. During the 1920s the company's operations grew rapidly, but during the Depression the company suffered from low demand in lumber products. After a number of forest fires in the late 1920s and early 1930s damaged its prospects, the company closed in 1932. In 1936, the company was reorganized as the Oregon-American Lumber Corporation and it rebuilt its finances, reconstructed logging camps, and worked with organized labor groups that emerged in the late 1930s. New technology helped the company become successful and after a forest fire and a labor strike in the late 1930s, the company expanded operations in the 1940s. During the 1940s, the company produced lumber at great profit, but the the boom was short-lived and in 1953 the company stock was sold to the Long-Bell Lumber Company. The final logs to the Vernonia mill arrived in August 1957.