Lumber Mill Roars Back to Life as Moeser-Remly Builds New Planer Plant
The old Eagle mill site hums with activity as a full crew runs the sawmill and crews break ground on a modern planer, promising Newport a new distributing hub for lumber and building supplies.
The Moeser-Remly Lumber Co.'s mill on the south side is now running a full force of men. While they have not a very large supply of logs on hand, they are receiving some deliveries and will keep the mill running as long as possible. A spur will soon be built from the Great Northern tracks which will enable them to receive logs by rail and also increase the convenience of loading for shipment.
F. C. Jones Son have started on the work of erecting the building to house the new planer plant to be installed by the company. The building will be 40x60 with a boiler and engine room 20x50. The new plant is to be equipped with the latest and best machinery, which is already on the road from the east and will be here by the time the building is completed. The planer is being so built as to permit of enlargement of the plant in the future, and the manufacture of sash and doors is also being considered by the company.
In addition to the local retail business of the company they are putting in yards at the towns of Ione and Usk down the river, several barge load shipments being made to these points this week. The company handles sash and doors, bricks, cement, plaster, etc., in carload lots and will make Newport the distributing point for these products.
The news of the old Eagle sounds good to Newport people after a silence of a year and a half and the life injected into the proposition by the Moeser-Remly Company is certainly appreciated as an advantage to the town.
“The news of the old Eagle sounds good to Newport people after a silence of a year and a half and the life injected into the proposition by the Moeser-Remly Company is certainly appreciated as an advantage to the town.”
Newport's economy once revolved around timber, and the Moeser-Remly mill was a lifeline. Today, the sawmills are mostly gone, but the debate over how to attract family-wage jobs to rural Pend Oreille County continues. The new planer plant promised steady work and a rail spur; modern economic developers promise broadband and tourism. The challenge remains the same: how to turn natural resources and transportation into lasting prosperity.
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