A Spokane Lumber Giant Swallows the Arden Mill
The Fidelity Lumber Company bought out Arden's holdings and promised a new crew, creating one of Eastern Washington's largest lumber combinations.
The Fidelity Lumber Co. of Spokane has purchased all the stock and holdings of the Arden Lumber Co. and will put on a crew in a short time. The two companies have been very strong independently of each other, and this merger will make it one of the largest lumber companies in Eastern Washington. A. J. McClinty will be general superintendent at the mill when it is started.
“The two companies have been very strong independently of each other and this merger will make it one of the largest lumber companies in Eastern Washington.”
Timber consolidation in 1908 concentrated jobs and mill capacity in fewer corporate hands, a pattern that still shapes rural Washington when outside capital buys local mills. The promise of a new crew was also a promise of payroll in a county that depended on lumber.
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