Building History

Thomas Barlow Walker (1840-1928) founded the Red River Lumber Company in Akeley, MN, in 1884. As Midwestern forests became denuded, lumber magnates moved to other regions of the US, particularly to the Pacific Northwest and Northern California to find untapped timber stands. Red River operated this factory and an adjoining company town in Westwood, CA, beginning in 1913. (See Forest History Society.org, "Inventory of the Red River Lumber Company Photograph Album, circa 1920s," accessed 06/02/2022.) Walker became extremely wealthy from lumber and became a philanthropist, donating money to the Minneapolis Public Library and what would become the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN.

In 1918, an advertisement in the Architect and Engineer indicated that the Red River Lumber Company's Mill at Westwood, CA, was the largest in the US at the time, producing 175,000,000 board feet of pine and fir lumber per year. The ad noted that the plant "...is thoroughly modern--electrically driven throughout--and requires more than 2000 employees for its operation." (See Paraffine Companies, Incorporated advertisement, Architect and Engineer, 09/1918, p. 125.)

Thomas Walker's four sons operated the Red River Lumber Company after his retirement. His youngest son Archie D. Walker ((1882-1971) sold off the Westwood town and lumber mill on 11/30/1944, to the CA-based citrus growers' cooperative, Fruit Growers Supply Company, better known by its products' brand name "Sunkist."

PCAD id: 24408