Band Mill, located off Grangemont, was owned by Palmer Soderberg and Joe McCarthy and opened in 1939. It got its name from the band saw that was the first in the area used to cut boards off the logs. Other mills were using circle saws.

Some of the equipment was from previous mill sites. Down river from Pink House Hole in the area known as McGill Hole on the railroad side of the Clearwater River, there was once a mill.(The piers can still be seen at low water.) When it was torn out in 1928, the equipment was moved first by rail car to the Rudo Landing up Orofino Creek. It was then put on trucks and taken to a new site at Cow Creek for a new mill. When the rent on the land, owned by Jim Crawford, became higher than they were willing to pay, the men closed the mill and moved the equipment to start Band Mill.

Phil Johnston in helping fill in some of the history of Band Mill after he entered the correct guess, said his grandfather, William Joseph Johnson, was involved in building both Band Mill and O Mill. Soderberg and McCarthy also owned O Mill. It is also quite likely WJ Johnson helped dismantle the mill at McGill Hole.

Logs for Band Mill were supplied by gyppos, first Butch and George Gleason and later Phillips and Triplett.

After Soderberg died suddenly in 1960, the mill was sold to Potlatch Corp., along with O Mill.It operated for about a year after that and was shut down.

Trivia Archives

Sponsored by: