Celebrating 63-year career with Pyramid Mountain Lumber

SEELEY LAKE – "There is true grit Roger and Rhea [Johnson]," said Pyramid Mountain Lumber Vice President Charlie Parke pointing to the Johnsons at Roger's career celebration. "They survived because they care about the people."

President and owner Todd Johnson said Roger Johnson's leadership, perseverance, willingness to take risks and ability to surround himself with good people that cared as much about the company as he did, built and made Pyramid Mountain Lumber, Inc. what it is today.

After 63 years of working for and leading Pyramid Mountain Lumber, Roger, 86, has stepped into an advisory role. While he looks forward to still coming into the office and staying involved, his sons Todd and Steve own the mill with Partner Charlie Parke.

Past and present employees as well as industry partners and friends came together to celebrate Roger's career June 23. He and Rhea will also lead the Seeley Lake Fourth of July parade as this year's Grand Marshal.

Roger is proud of coming through all the diversity, ups and downs and continuing as the only remaining mill in Missoula County. He is proud that he made his two boys a living and supported the community.

"If my dad was alive today, I know he would be pretty proud of these men [Todd and Steve] today," Roger said. "We have had tough competition, it has always been there. When you are isolated in a community like Seeley Lake it is more personal. Seeley Lake has always been our home."

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The idea for the mill in Seeley Lake started following World War II. A lumber wholesaler from Spokane, Washington had his son look at a site to build a sawmill in Montana. His son along with three other veterans selected a site in Seeley Lake and began building what was to become the Bockmier Mill. It was never a fully operational mill and was shut down after a couple of years.

"That is how my grandpa [Fred Johnson] and his partner [Oscar Mood] found out about it and came out and looked at it," said Todd. "It was a pretty small operation."

Fred and Oscar were friends who worked in the timber industry in Minnesota. They traveled to Seeley Lake in the winter of 1948 and purchased the Bockmier Mill. They renamed it J & M Lumber.

Starting in the eighth grade, Roger and Alfred, Oscar's son, helped around the mill doing whatever was needed. The summer before high school they cleaned up the mill yard and earned $1.95 per hour, minimum wage.

Todd said at the time Seeley Lake was a man camp. Men came and worked all week, slept in the bunkhouse, ate at the cookhouse and some went home on weekends.

"It was like hunting camp all week and then go home to see mom and the kids on the weekends," Todd said. "It was a rough and tumble crowd – work hard, play hard was what it was all about."

The cookhouse offered five to six meals a day feeding the two shifts and the logging crew. Roger still maintains it was some of the best, home-cooked meals he has ever had. However, he and Alfred would skip lunch just to add the $1.65 to their paycheck.

In 1952, Roger remembered the mill burning after Christmas. Since there was no power and it was very cold, the diesel engines would not start. They had to start a fire underneath the engines. Because the floor was saturated with oil, "[The mill] caught fire and burned down," Roger said.

Not to be discouraged, J & M Lumber rebuilt. This time they installed electricity. Roger said this was the first step in modernization of the mill. In the beginning when the equipment started up, it would dim the lights in town.

He remembered before electricity they had two men that loaded the log carriage – they would roll the log onto the carriage. Then one of the men, riding the carriage, would set the tongs and ride back and forth turning the log based on hand signals given from the sawyer in the booth.

Roger worked different jobs at the mill including driving a lumber truck up the Blackfoot to Missoula in high school. He graduated high school from Missoula in 1954. He enrolled in the University of Montana where he studied business and played football. After two years of school, he enlisted in the Army where he served two years.

Roger returned to Seeley Lake. He worked out in the yard piling lumber and did other odd jobs for several years before he moved into the office to sell lumber.

In the early 1960s, Pyramid got a new loan officer in Missoula. The loan officer was a forward thinker and asked Roger what they could do to help make the mill better. They borrowed money to purchase band saw equipment to replace all the circle saws they were running in the mill.

"That picked up our production and made less sawdust so that means we had more recovery of the log," Roger said. "That really was the beginning of heavier modernization of the mill."

In the 1970s, the second generation assumed ownership when Oscar Mood died. Roger became president and owned it with Oscar's three sons Don Hoehn and Alfred and Doug Mood. They incorporated the company and changed the name to Pyramid Mountain Lumber, Inc.

Pyramid rode the rollercoaster of major ups and downs in the industry and economy.

"Our business is very cyclical. In these cycles you risk it all to hopefully come out the other side," Todd said. "These downturns took out a lot of competitors. This is one of the reasons why we are the only mill left in Missoula County when there used to be at least 10."

All of the Johnson boys worked at the mill growing up.

"I learned more on the wall of the restroom at the sawmill cleaning toilets in the summer than I have learned in my entire life," Randy Johnson said and laughed.

After completing college, Todd returned to the mill followed by his brother Steve a few years later. In the early 1990s, Randy moved to Colorado and sold his shares of the company to his brothers.

"I wanted to stay in Montana and this was by far the best opportunity," Todd said.

By the mid-1990's Todd and Steve started families and Roger approached them about owning some stock in the company.

"No rosy pictures were painted, this is a tough business with a lot of personal risk," Todd said. "But like Dad, this business is all we have ever known, so we were all in."

The downturn in 2000 and tight competition for logs was the worse the industry had ever experienced. Pyramid announced that they were going to shut down.

"It wasn't like we were going to shut down and have people walk away with money in their pocket," Todd said adding the way they are structured any debt the owners take on is their personal liability.

Being the largest employer in Seeley Lake, the state and Missoula County approached Pyramid to see what could be done to keep the doors open. Modernization and taking on more debt was the only solution.

Alfred and Doug were ready to retire and did not want to take on more debt.

Roger recalled talking with one of Pyramid's main loggers Charlie. Even though Charlie lived in Drummond, Montana, he was interested in the community and the people. He told Roger, "I just can't see that many people in Seeley Lake lose their jobs."

Charlie said he never wanted to get into the sawmill business. His family was against it and at times he thought he was crazy. However, a little voice kept prodding him.

In 2001, Charlie purchased the Moods' shares in the business and became an owner in Pyramid.

"It's been tough but I've tried to listen to that voice and it has been a grand experience," Charlie said.

"Thank God Charlie is the kind of person he was. He saw a need here and saw it was going to be a rough go for the town," Todd said. "Without Charlie taking a very large personal risk, the company may not be here today. We all owe Charlie a great deal of gratitude as well as a new bank that was willing to service us."

Since 2000, Pyramid has continued to push through the recessions. Todd said they saw one of their worst years and best years in a five-year period.

"I think one of the main reasons that we are still here and other mills aren't is [Roger and Charlie] were willing to push to that point where most owners wouldn't," Todd said.

"We don't look at the jobs on site, we look at the community as a whole," Roger said. "There has been a lot of times our accountants have come in and said, 'Roger, we are really pushing things.' We've had a discussion about all the people that are going to lose their jobs, not just the people here but the loggers, people that have businesses uptown and the school."

Roger remained president for more than 50 years. The mission has never changed, "to make the highest quality product at the best price." They have done this by investing in the company and upgrading equipment to stay competitive.

Todd said Pyramid has gone from men riding the log carriage and turning it by hand to the first computerized equipment in the early 1990s. Now they have a fully automated lumber grading system.

"If you look where we started and where we are today, it is leap years of where we were when we were doing everything by hand," Todd said. "It is a continuing upgrade of everything from the point technology took off. You have to stay up on it or you don't stay competitive."

Pyramid also does not own timberland but it is centrally located cutting their transportation cost.

"We always had a little cushion being closer to the resource," Roger said. "It is some of the best timber resources in the state."

Roger said Pyramid has "The Stewardship Company" on their logo.

"It speaks to what people feel we do on the ground is done with some concern of how it looks when it is done," Roger said.

Roger said purchasing timber from the Forest Service has always been a challenge. Even though there are fewer mills, he said the competition is just as tough because the Forest Service has cut back their timber programs.

In addition to public timber, Roger said the private timber in the area has been a huge benefit. Now there are only two mills left in the state that cut ponderosa pine.

"We've always prided ourselves in being able to do a lot of different products out of different species," Roger said. "That has given us an opportunity to weather different storms. You have that flexibility."

Along with being able to do things that made the mill more diverse and efficient, Roger enjoyed surrounding himself with good, loyal people. In his 63 years, Pyramid has only had four accountants.

"The way our company is organized the accountant is not just pushing numbers, [they are] involved with the people," Roger said.

Loren Rose was one of the accountants that recently retired. Roger said he was instrumental in his ability to look at things, provide a picture to help them make the best choices and offered a voice in the planning. He also fit in with the community and was very involved with the mill workers.

"Wendy [Dalrymple, current accountant] will do the same," Roger said. "She is a very smart lady."

At their peak, Pyramid employed 160 workers and they have worked with around 100 loggers over the years.

"We've had some great people come through here that have really worked hard," Roger said.

When COVID hit, Charlie asked if anyone "was milking the system." When he found out everyone was still coming to work, he suggested, "If we ever make any money we ought to share it with them."

Charlie applauded the Johnsons' decision to give several bonuses to all the workers when lumber prices spiked last year.

"I don't know how much it was but it was pretty generous. They could have put all that in their pocket," Charlie said. "These are all good people and it has been a pleasure to do business with them for [more than] 20 years."

"It's an honor to work for someone like Roger who is a wise businessman, can tolerate the incredible ups and downs in the industry yet always offering up a big smile," wrote Gordy Sanders, Pyramid Resource Specialist, in an email. "It truly is a pleasure to be associated with such a talented leader."

While the challenges have changed over the years, Roger said the biggest challenges now are finding good workers and housing for them. They currently only have 115 workers that earn a starting wage of $18.71 per hour. Ideally they would employ 135.

Roger explained without the people available to run the necessary hours of production, "we have to find a way to produce more in fewer hours."

Another worry in the back of Roger's mind has been the attitudes and beliefs from people who are moving into the area that may or may not understand the benefits of timber harvest.

"If they have been here long enough, I think they have a respect of what the mill brings to the community," Roger said. "We have a respect that they are here and have brought better goods and services into the community and downtown benefits by it. I think it has been a win-win situation."

Roger was one of the original members of the Montana Wood Products Association in 1972 and served twice as the president. He has also served on just about every other board in the industry. This offered a great opportunity to share ideas and network. Roger said through participating, they have built partnerships and been a strong voice at the table to keep logs coming into the mill.

"As the mills go away over the years, we have to be a bigger voice at the table because there are not as many mills as there was 20-30 years ago," Roger said. "If we don't come to the table, we won't have a voice because there isn't anyone else carrying the ball like there was 20-30 years ago."

Owner of the Idaho Forest Group (IFG) largest lumber producer in the inland Northwest, fellow sawmiller and 40-year veteran of the Inter Mountain Forest Marc Brinkmeyer sent a note to Roger regarding his career.

"[Roger] has been a good steward of the public forests and support of our industry. [He has] found success which speaks volumes to those of us who have tried to navigate the Montana culture and have failed," Brinkmeyer wrote. "[His] shadow in Montana was significant as I learned early on that [he was] one of the top operators and [his] opinions on policy were well founded and to be carefully considered. "

Within the Seeley Lake community, Roger also has been the president of the two separate Seeley Lake Lions Clubs, served on the Seeley Lake Elementary School board, the Water District board and the Johnsons have been members of the Seeley-Swan High School Booster Club. Rhea served for many years as the secretary of the Seeley-Swan Hospital District.

"I've known him to be an incredible, thoughtful leader who listens and considers all perspectives and based on his broad relationships and networks of information provides a vision for the most beneficial direction for moving forward regardless of which organization he represents at the time," said Gordy who has worked at Pyramid for 26 years. "His involvement in local community organizations is perpetual and always constructive. Supporting the local community and diversifying Seeley Lake's business community has always been a high priority."

Now Todd and Steve are in the place that Roger was 50 years ago.

"We have big shoes to fill and we have learned from the best, there is no one better than Roger," Todd said. "Attention to detail, treating people as you would want to be treated, surround yourself with good people who care about the company, don't shy from asking the hard questions and never assume anything will get done on its own are just a few of the things that will always be with me."

Randy said it is so exciting to see the company currently doing so well.

"To see the pride that all of you have and to see my brothers taking it over," Randy said at Roger's celebration. "It is in good hands. Not only with them but with everyone who is here."

"Don't expect much to change, we will still see Roger here every day he wants to be. His knowledge of this business is an asset that cannot be replaced. Running a business seems harder now that it has ever been, but the recent lumber markets have put us in a very good place," Todd said. "As Roger steps away, he does so with the comfort knowing that he did everything possible to ensure that the company is in one of the best places it has ever been. Grandpa Fred and Grandma Dorothy would be very proud of what you have accomplished."