One mill on the Eureka waterfront.
Schmidbauer Lumber has cut the softwoods of California's North Coast from the same site since 1971 — still family-owned, still run by the family that started it, and still shipping lumber worldwide.
In 1971 the Schmidbauer family opened a sawmill on the Eureka waterfront. More than five decades later the same mill is still running, on the same ground, under the same family's name.
What comes in is North Coast softwood — Douglas Fir, Hemlock, Redwood, Pine, and Spruce. What leaves is lumber cut to customer specification and shipped worldwide, from a waterfront site that has been a working mill for more than fifty years.
Roughly 110 people work here. The mill runs ten stations, log deck to shipping, and most of the crew learned the work here rather than arriving with it — a station at a time, paid from the first day.
Schmidbauer does not sell retail. The mill supplies lumber retailers and businesses; there are no direct-to-public sales at the gate.
Site plan Schmidbauer Lumber, Inc.1099 Waterfront Dr, Eureka
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
The mill, as it reads.
One site, one line, one crew. This is the whole of it.
- Since
- 1971, on the Eureka waterfront
- Species
- Douglas Fir · Hemlock · Redwood · Pine · Spruce
- Mill
- Full-scale softwood mill
- Line
- 10 stations, log deck to shipping
- Crew
- Roughly 110 people
- Ships
- Worldwide, cut to customer specification
- Sales
- Wholesale only — no direct-to-public sales
Long careers are the whole point.
Most of the people running this mill started on its floor. That's still how it works.