Expanding Forestry Industry

Forestry is the third largest industry in the Peace River country. Many who traveled to the Peace country realized the value of forestry. Some settlers traveling by the Long Trail in 1900 and later on the Edson-Grande Prairie Trail brought small sawmills with them. Once they arrived they produced the lumber needed in the local economy.

Setting up a sawmill was critical to A. M. Bezanson’s effort to establish a town at the mouth of the Simonette River on the Smoky River.

As time passed more sawmills arrived and lumber was cut for local needs. It was not until 1945 when the Crooked Creek Lumber Company was established that lumber was loaded on the train at Grande Prairie to be sold in eastern Canada and in the United States. This company expanded in 1952 to create the Northern Plywood Company.

The Northern Plywood Company and Grande Prairie Lumber Company were purchased in 1961 by the Canadian Forest Products Ltd. (Canfor). The combined companies were renamed the Northern Canadian Forest Industries Ltd.

In 1973, Procter and Gamble announced it was building a major pulp mill near Grande Prairie. Weyerhauser Canada began its own developments in Grande Prairie in the 1980s. Daishowa-Marubeni International Ltd. began developing facilities in Peace River in the 1980s as well.

The forestry industry has continued to grow as the decades have passed. The reforestation efforts have effectively kept the industry on a stable foundation in the Peace River district. Forestry will continue to be an important industry for the region into the future.

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