Arizona Lumber And Timber Collection

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Volume:

150 black-and-white photographs.

Views include:

Arizona Lumber & Timber logging and lumber operations, 1890-1900; Lake Mary, ca. 1905, Navajo Ordinance (Army) Depot official opening, Dec. 1942.

Historical Agency Note:

In 1887 Denis Riordan purchased the Ayer Lumber Company, which had been established in Flagstaff in 1881. His brothers, Michael and Timothy, joined him to help with the business. In 1893 F.W. Sisson purchased Denis' i nterest and the Arizona Lumber Company was renamed the Arizona Lumber and Timber Company. This lumber company was one of the most progressive in the Southwest during the 1890's. The company was incorporated under the laws of the Territory of Arizona on Ja nuary 1, 1890. The original mill burned down in 1898, and the rebuilt mill stood until 1961, when it too burned.

Demand for the company's products such as lumber, railroad ties, piles, stulls and lagging for copper mines, and fruit and vegetable boxes spread throughout the Southwest and Mexico.

In 1897 AL&T obtained control of the Greenlaw Mill which was then located at a town called Cliffs, near the current Flagstaff Mall and Peaks Ranger Station. This plant operated until 1925 when it was dismantled and added to the Flagstaff plant. Betwee n 1890 and 1900 the company operated the Greenlaw Mill in Clark's Valley known as "The Swamp." Timber obtained from this mill was hauled by the company's own railroad, known as the Central Arizona Railway, to the main mill in Flagstaff.

When drought struck, the company built the first large dam in Clark's Valley creating a lake in 1904. The lake was named Mary after Timothy Riordan's oldest daughter.

On August 23, 1898, Denis Riordan resigned as Company president and was suceeded by his brother. Timothy Riordan, served as president until June of 1933, when Joseph C. Dolan assumed the office. On March 1, 1941, Dolan leased the mill to a former compe titor, the Saginaw & Manistee Lumber Company. The mill soon became an important defense contractor, supplying materials to the newly-established Navajo Ordnance Depot which shipped ammunition to the Pacific during WWII.

In 1953 the Saginaw & Manistee Lumber Company sold its lease to Southwest Lumber Mills, a.k.a. Southwest Forest Industries, and much of the machinery was moved to their Flagstaff plant on Butler Avenue which became Stone Forest Industries in 1991. Ston e Forest Industries closed the Flagstaff operation on May 15, 1993.

Related Materials:

Manuscript #266

Cline Library
Special Collections and Archives Department
Northern Arizona University