Stimson Lumber Company to Permanently Close Its Plummer, ID, Sawmill

Citing tight operating margins, Stimson Lumber Company intends to permanently close its Plummer, Idaho, sawmill facility by August, The Spokesman Review reported (5-6-24).

According to Andrew Miller, Stimson CEO, the mill has been mainly supplying Home Depot and Lowe’s. The mill specializes in manufacturing studs from smaller trees that are roughly 4–8 inches in diameter.

At its peak, the mill once employed around 100 workers and produced about 100 million feet of lumber a year, Miller said. Today, those figures have reduced to 22 and 35 million, respectively.

“Over time, the supply of the size of timber that that mill processes has declined, and so we reduced the production,” Miller told The Spokesman Review. “We’ve been trying to match the output of the mill to the availability of the log supply. And after the pandemic, there was a significant downshift in supply.”

Miller noted that Stimson has leased the property from the Coeur d’Alene Tribe along US Highway 95 since 2007, but Miller anticipates no tenant will ever reopen the mill.

“We all know skilled labor is more and more difficult to attract and retain. So, finding 80 or 90 people to start a mill is highly unlikely,” he said. “I won’t say never. But once a sawmill closes, it’s almost never going to reopen.”