John Christensen: Native Lumber 

John Christensen: Native Lumber 

“I don’t want to branch out and try to have all these other little avenues. I want to focus on what the mill is good at and make it ten times more efficient.”

• John Christensen

Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast! Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with John Christensen from Native Lumber. With discussion about multi-generational woodworking, how things change over time, and the challenges facing businesses in today’s marketplace, you won’t want to miss this episode!

“We’ve had a little sawmill on our family ranch for just about every generation, which my little girls will be the fifth generation on the place. The first mill was right after the turn of the century, a little steam-powered circle mill that my grandfather and his brothers used to build their house. Their father actually worked in a bigger production mill not far from here. 

They grew a little bit bigger on an American Number One that they ran in the 40s and 50s. My dad took that over, and my mom and dad ran that into the 90s until they went a different direction because of a partner leaving. So we haven’t had an operational mill since then. My wife and I and best friend Curtis Baker put our heads together to rebuild that circle mill. 

After some research, we purchased a Cooks sawmill and edger five years ago to take care of our own needs and hopefully sell some boards here and there. Since then, it’s blown into a full-scale operation. So now there’s three of us full-time and two more guys that come in part-time and help us at the end of the week.”

• John Christensen

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