The Ayer Lumber Company
Motivated by business prospects in the timber industry and his knowledge of northern Arizona’s wealth of timberlands, Chicago businessman Edward E. Ayer (1841-1927) acquired the contract that would allow him to supply the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad charter with wooden railroad ties. Ayer founded the Ayer Lumber Company in March of 1882 and began constructing a permanent sawmill in Flagstaff, Arizona.
The Ayer Lumber Company sawmill was completed in August of 1882. It promptly began producing lumber and railroad ties for the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, which was actively being constructed through the Flagstaff settlement at the time.
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Fire repeatedly interfered with sawmill and logging operations at the Ayer Lumber Company. Lightning, sparks produced by the railroad, flying embers from a passing train, and reckless lumberjacks often started fires near the sawmill and the surrounding forests. Ayer Lumber Company sawmill employees quickly became adept at extinguishing fires.
When loggers heard the town church bells ringing along with the sawmill whistle, they sprang into action to extinguish a fire no matter the time of day or night. Fires threatened the Ayer Lumber Company by destroying company property and timberlands. To protect their economic well-being, the company practiced intensive fire suppression, effectively altering the ponderosa pine ecosystem.
In 1886, Edward E. Ayer sold the company to his business partner, Denis M. Riordan (1848-1928), who had worked as the head manager of the Ayer Lumber Company sawmill since 1884. D.M. Riordan’s brothers, Timothy A. Riordan (1858-1946) and Michael J. Riordan (1865-1930), moved from their home in Chicago to Flagstaff at roughly the same time to work for the company with their older brother. Under the ownership of the Riordan brothers, the Ayer Lumber Company was renamed the Arizona Lumber & Timber Company (AL&T).
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