Rosboro - Growing Today. Building Tomorrow.®

Heading west
Our story began in 1890 when Thomas Whitaker "Whit" Rosborough bought his first sawmill and began his career as a lumber entrepreneur. In 1906, he formed the Caddo River Lumber Company in Rosboro, Arkansas. After a honeymoon trip to the Pacific Northwest, Whit Rosborough formed a vision of a lumber company in the west. So, with many loyal employees, he headed to Springfield, Oregon in 1939.

Rosborough purchased timberland in the Mapleton area in the Coast Range and ultimately traded it for timber holdings in the McKenzie River valley. He began construction in 1939 of Rosboro's first sawmill with the most modern design and state-of-the-art machinery available. When the first board rolled through the completed sawmill in June 1940, the local newspaper touted the mill as the "Northwest's most modern lumber manufacturing plant."

After five years, Whit Rosborough decided to move to Texas to retire and sold the company to several key employees and their spouses - Beuford S. Cole, general manager, and his wife Teden; Tom Watts, mill superintendent, and his wife Martha; Vernon Williams, the logging manager; and Spencer Collins, a local CPA who handled the company's taxes and other financial matters.

Evolving With the Industry
The original sawmill was built to be self-reliant, using energy generated from its three-stack power plants and two steam turbines. As new technology was developed, Rosboro continued to grow and evolve. In 1959, a veneer mill was constructed to peel veneer and the plywood plant began manufacturing products a little less than a year later. In the early 1960's, the company had the distinction of becoming one of the first fully integrated forest products operations. The glulam operation began manufacturing the first of our family of laminated products in 1963. Later, in 1975, the small log mill was built to manufacture studs from smaller second-growth timber. In 2001, we diversified into the hardwood door and window frame manufacturing business when we acquired Washington Hardwoods Company in Seattle, Washington. Our glulam business grew in 2005 with the acquisition from Weyerhaeuser Company of the Vaughn laminating facility near Veneta, Oregon. This plant increased our laminating production, making us the largest glulam manufacturer in North America.

Each facility has been updated and modernized to improve efficiency and increase production. Today, computers and electronic imaging systems control most of our equipment, and information systems play an important role in the day-to-day operations.

Rosboro Today
Today, we are one of the few fully-integrated forest products operations in the United States. Our original timberland base has grown into one of the largest private timberland holdings in the Pacific Northwest. Our original large-log sawmill continues to operate, making Douglas fir lam stock. The small log mill is known throughout the industry for superior green and kiln-dried Douglas fir and hem-fir (coastal hemlock) studs. Our glulam facilities in Springfield and Veneta, Oregon manufacture our family of laminated products for both commercial and residential construction throughout the United States. Washington Hardwoods, our door and window frame manufacturing facility, specializes in hardwood products for the commercial construction market. Our strong distribution network means that our products can be found from Oregon to Florida and in nearly every state in between.

We continue to acquire timberland throughout Western Oregon and seek out diversification and growth opportunities. Our professional management team, along with all of our employees, are dedicated to the principles that Whit Rosborough embodied over 65 years ago - hard work, a commitment to quality products and service, and a vision for the future.