Marks Lumber in Clancy will partially close this spring for major facility upgrades aimed at increasing efficiency, output and safety. The longtime mill operation has already modified its product selection in preparation for the significant facility modifications, which will begin mid-April and are slated to wrap up by July 1.
In anticipation of the partial closure, the business has limited its product selection to only 6- and 4-inch circle-sawn flooring boards, #3 grade 1-inch boards, #2 grade 2-inch boards, and timbers. Customers should expect to wait between eight and 10 weeks for the mill to fulfill orders. Marks Lumber is working on pre-order products to help fill orders during the expansion process.
“Right now we are running the mill as hard as we can,” Operation Manager Jeremy Glatz said in a phone call on Monday.
Marks Lumber has stopped taking orders for select grade lumber, timber products and siding products until it reopens around July 1. The office will remain open during the expansion, and customers are welcome to come in.
Updates include replacing the facility’s board edger and adding an inline trimmer. Currently, Marks Lumber has vintage versions of these machines that require operators to constantly hand-feed them. The incoming machines are used, not new, but are more modern and automated than the current edger and inline trimmer. Columbia Construction, the company hired to complete the expansion, will refurbish and customize the modern machines to work with Marks Lumber’s mill setup.
Glatz said that the edger is a crucial component in the mill; however, workers avoid using it because of its complexity.
“It has been a really big part of our mill, but it has not been able to keep up with the mill’s growth,” Glatz said.
The current trimmer at the Marks Lumber mill is both labor-intensive and dangerous. At the moment, the operator must stop every board twice to ensure both ends get trimmed. Glatz explained that this is a mentally straining task.
“It is a very complicated spot, but it is a very important spot in the mill,” Glatz said.
Marks Lumber chose to update these machines with primarily automatic options for the sake of improving mill safety and efficiency—a move that Glatz said reflects the current owner Steve Marks’ dedication to the safety and the wellbeing of the Marks Lumber crew.
”This is just another improvement he has made here at Marks Lumber,” Glatz said.
The new, semiautomatic inline trimmer will cut the boards at both ends and require the operator to touch the boards less often.
“With this upgrade, we are really trying to do two things: one, increase our capacity to better serve our customers and, second, make this mill a less stressful place and a better place to work,” Glatz said in a video about the upgrades. The company expects these adjustments to improve its production capacity by 30%.
Glatz said that the expansion aligns with company values of producing lumber products in a friendly and safe environment while improving production efficiency. He said the company does not want to lay off anyone during the expansion. Instead, workers will shift primarily to producing siding, floorboards and other side jobs. Marks Lumber also has some of its employees working on the expansion project.
The business is also hiring: Last month, Marks Lumber was looking to hire a sawmill laborer, a mechanic, a lumber yard worker, a millwright and a truck driver.
The company has operated from its Clancy location for more than 75 years, but the mill has roots going back to the 1800s. Ernest Marks, Steve Marks’ great-grandfather, purchased a Montana homestead in the 1880s, according to the Marks Lumber website. Although Ernest was a cattle rancher, he also helped manufacture timber products for the family ranch, and he produced timber for their neighbors and other customers.
The Marks installed a mill on their family homestead in 1938. Even with a mill on their property, the operation was always second to the cattle ranch, and the family’s ranching history still influences the lumber mill. Ernest Marks used a cross/half-circle sign for his cattle brand. When his son, Merle Marks, built the white barn at the entrance of Marks Lumber mill in 1926, he painted the brand on its roof. The brand still plays a role in the Marks Lumber reputation: The company now uses this symbol as part of its logo. According to the website, “The cross half-circle symbol lives on as both a livestock brand and as a logo representing Marks Lumber’s continued commitment to the Montana community, the land, the forest, and to quality timber products.”
Milling did not become a significant portion of the Marks family income until the late 1980s when Steve Marks took over. Steve updated the mill to produce railroad ties. At this point, Marks Lumber gained a broader customer base and needed a larger mill. Construction on the current mill finished in 2000.
Recently the company has pushed to reach zero log waste. Previous efforts to reach the goal included adding a biofuel-powered dry kiln, increasing grind capability and adding a bark sorting plant. Those past upgrades allowed Marks Lumber to make playground safety bark, manufacture decorative gardening bark, produce mulch and cultivate soil conditioner.
Before those changes, Marks Lumber burned the log leftovers. Since the initial mill construction in 1938, other past improvements include adding a planer mill (1998), a band mill, a full timber frame, an office, a showroom (2008), an in-house timber frame shop (2009), and an optimized trim saw and end-matcher (2016).
