I was born in the suburb of Grand Rapids called Wyoming the majority of my childhood memories centered around hunting and fishing.  If I wasn’t outside I wasn’t happy. As a teenager I started making decisions that would direct me on a path that I would never detour from.  Even though I enjoyed athletics competition very much I chose to run a full time trap line at 14 years old.  As my high school years came to a close most of my friends were deciding which college to attend.  My mind had been made up years ago to become a mountain man.  A modern day Jerimiah Johnson so to speak.  I converted an old school bus into a traveling fur shed with sleeping quarters and headed north to Michigan’s upper peninsula.  In the late 70’s the fur markets were strong and a young hard working man could make a good living.  For the next ten years I chased fur bearers from Colorado to Texas with stops along the way in Iowa, Wyoming and Michigan.

I enjoyed those years tremendously but as the kids came along I settle into more normal routine. But I could not get the love for the outdoors out of my heart. During my trapping days I had spent most of the off seasons working in the woods, first just cutting firewood then later cutting logs. It wasn’t long before I got “sawdust” in my blood. I spent the next ten years producing timber for local mills and a Indiana Veneer company. I realized that to compete with the big sawmills I would have to get partnered up with a more direct outlet for my lumber logs.

I met my friend and partner Burt in 1994 and after doing a little business together we join forces and have worked together ever since. Over the past years we grew our company from a handful of employees to providing paychecks to over 70 families. We also invested heavily in quality forest management. Our first step was to hire degreed foresters who could steer our company in the right directions. They initiated the idea of writing Long Term management Plans for private landowners, which has proven to be a very successful program for us. We also implemented those same forestry principals on our own company lands and have been acknowledge by many industry professionals as a company dedicated to true forest management.

Many years have passed since that first load of firewood got thrown on the truck. My back isn’t quite what it use to be but the love for the woods still burns strong. The beauty of a properly managed timber stand still raises my pulse. And like that trophy buck in the scope it just never gets old!