Our History
In the summer of 1987 the Merritt family leased an old planer mill site in Dover, Idaho to be used for a cedar remanufacturing facility. Ron Cluster was hired as the general manager. This was the beginning of what we know today as Tri-Pro Cedar Products. We started out in August of 1987 as T&H Investments with a planer, a re-saw, and a double track steam kiln. T&H was soon shipping approx. 1,000,000 board feet of cedar a month. In June of 1990 T&H purchased the Empire Forest Products facility at the Industrial Park in Spokane, WA and became T&H of Washington. T&H employed approximately 120 people and was capable of shipping 3,000,000-4,000,000 board feet a month. The Spokane facility had two planners, a molder, two double track kilns, and two re-saws. They could produce a wide variety of western red cedar products from bevel siding and patterns to facia and deckings. In March of 1993 T&H evolved to become Tri-Pro Cedar Products (Professional Production Products). In July of 1996 Tri-Pro bought the Albeni Falls Plant in Oldtown, ID from Crown Pacific. We started running the plant immediately and over the next 1 1/2 years phased all the operations out of Spokane as we moved everything to Oldtown.
Today we operate this state of the art facility with 75 employees still shipping between 3,000,000-4,000,000 board feet a month. Equipment consists of seven re-saws, a three saw edger, four planners, three tray sorters, ten dehumidification kilns, and all the necessary support equipment to produce about anything out of Western Red Cedar anyone could want. We have over 2 1/2 acres of covered storage and are able to custom run and package products to our customers needs then ship those products via BN rail, truck, or van. Key personnel include Steve Linton-President, Ron Cluster-Vice President, Terry Baker-Sales Manager, Lance Hubener-Sales, Karen Phillips-Office Administration, and Mike Davis-Production Coordinator & Shipping We currently run the sawmill, the kiln facility, and 3 separate re-saw and planer lines. Each planer line specializes in a different category of products. This allows us to efficiently produce a wide array of products to fit our customers needs and to change our products as the markets for them change. Tri-Pro Cedar, still owned by the Merritt Family, sits on a beautiful 35 acre site overlooking the Pend Oreille River.
Today we operate this state of the art facility with 75 employees still shipping between 3,000,000-4,000,000 board feet a month. Equipment consists of seven re-saws, a three saw edger, four planners, three tray sorters, ten dehumidification kilns, and all the necessary support equipment to produce about anything out of Western Red Cedar anyone could want. We have over 2 1/2 acres of covered storage and are able to custom run and package products to our customers needs then ship those products via BN rail, truck, or van. Key personnel include Steve Linton-President, Ron Cluster-Vice President, Terry Baker-Sales Manager, Lance Hubener-Sales, Karen Phillips-Office Administration, and Mike Davis-Production Coordinator & Shipping We currently run the sawmill, the kiln facility, and 3 separate re-saw and planer lines. Each planer line specializes in a different category of products. This allows us to efficiently produce a wide array of products to fit our customers needs and to change our products as the markets for them change. Tri-Pro Cedar, still owned by the Merritt Family, sits on a beautiful 35 acre site overlooking the Pend Oreille River.
Tri-Pro is an innovative company with a solid workforce that is poised to be a leading producer of Western Red Cedar products for many years to come.