Historic Hood River
Hanel Lumber Company
5-12-2023
Notes
This image is captioned “Hanel Lbr. Co. Green Chain”. It has a companion captioned “Hanel Lbr. Co. Planer Chain.” I could be misreading the word “Chain”. I’m not sure when the image was taken, but it entered our collection in 2002.
Hanel Lumber company was founded by Sterling Hanel in 1943. There were two mills– one in Odell right off Highway 35, and another at Neal Creek Road. Can anyone fill in some of the history, and identify which mill is in this image?
There were a series of acquisitions and bankruptcies around 2000, but I can’t recall what year the lower mill closed. The upper mill is operating again under new ownership.
Kalley
I talked with a retired Hanel’s Mill worker and he said this picture is of The Lower Mill. My son works at the upper mill (Mt Hood Forest Products) now.
Alan Winston
Doesn’t "chain" refer to the right side of the image where transporter chains are moving the boards from the saw area? The workers appear to be sorting the fresh green boards from the chain to appropriate stacks. The next step would be drying, then they would go for planning, followed by another chain and sort sequence.
Tom Kloster
A lifetime ago I worked several summers at Camp Baldwin, where the man-made lake on Wolf Run Creek is called Lake Hanel. The current camp opened in 1962 (the original camp was on Ramsey Creek – you can still find the traces), and I’m gong to guess that both the "Baldwin" and "Hanel" tributes were to benefactors who helped make the camp happen…
Pat A
I was working in Odell when this closed.
I do remember an influx of mill workers. Where I was employed
kathy rinehart
My Great Uncle Sterling..older brother to Lillie Hess my grandmother..
John Swyers
My Cousin, Brad Hanel and I worked several summers on sorter chain and relief on green chain.
I worked a few summers in the truck shop, setting sprinklers on log decks, running equipment up to logging sites, setting chokers on hillsides around Mt. Hood. Those were great days. As a young man Grandpa Hanel found himself with some money in his pocket and was going to buy a car. Grandma told him he’d better buy the portable sawmill he was looking at if he knew what was good for him.
He, brother Don Hanel and Ben Miner started HMH logging. At one time we had several hundred employees at Hanel Lumber Company. The only thing I can find with that logo is a long forgotten sticker on a window of the old guard shack.