Potsdam Sawmill Shuts Down

Potsdam Hardwoods makes the tough decision to close down the Potsdam Sawmill

Story by Christine Thompson
Photos Courtesy of Ashlie Doran

"I lost a job. When you're with a company for a long time, it's sad to think about finding another job," Laurie Corvett, Potsdam Hardwoods secretary since 1992 said. "Working with these people has been like having another family."

"The market is really, really bad. Almost all production is in China right now"

The Potsdam sawmill opened its doors for the last time on September 1, 2006. Bill Crary, owner of Potsdam Hardwoods feels he has made the best viable decision for his company. The sawmill in the village of Potsdam is closing down after 16 years under his ownership.

"The market is really really bad; almost all production is in China right now," Crary said about the decision to close. Because of what Crary called the cheap labor force in China and Chinese manufacturers not acknowledging any environmental concerns, China is now controlling a lot of the lumber trade.

According to Forest and Trade Asia, it is true that China is at the heart of the global trade for lumber and only continuing to grow in the market, however, the depletion of natural resources and illegal logging is not part of their success.

The 100-acre area that includes the sawmill is currently for sale by Crary and the co-owned Canadian company C.A. Spencer. Crary mentioned the interest of a bio-diesel company and other companies, whose names couldn't be revealed, with potential interest in re-opening the sawmill or buying the land.

"We are confident something will happen there," said Fred Hanss, director of Planning and Economic Development in Potsdam. Whether what Hanss mentions includes the use of the sawmill is still up in the air. "We are exploring the possibilities of what could work there. Companies related to renewable energy production have looked into the mill. It is possible to use some of the same resources as before," he said. However, Hanss predicts the sawmill will not be reopened as a mill operation.

The sawmill was the largest manufacturing company in the Potsdam area and the only sawmill in New York. Potsdam Hardwoods provided lumber for furniture manufacturers, cabinet/kitchen manufacturers and many others all over the world, as well as locally. Employing 15 people whose experience ranged from five years to 20 years, the closing of the mill is causing some sentiments.

"Well, it's putting 15 people back into the job market again, and he's [Crary] one of the highest tax paying companies in Potsdam," Corvette said.

Tom Narrow, a mill worker for 23 years said,"it's not going to affect me very much or the town of Potsdam."

While Corvette is finding the job searching process to be challenging, job placement companies like Penski in Potsdam are helping her find other secretarial jobs in the area. Narrow is traveling around and working for a tree service company. Crary hopes to remain in the same field of business and he would also like to stay in the Potsdam area but is not ignoring possible job opportunities elsewhere. The closing of the mill is a tough loss to swallow, but "it was just a matter of time [before it closed down], everyone could see it coming," Narrow said.

How do you think this will affect Potsdam's economy?

History of the Potsdam Sawmill

The little hamlet called Sissonville, a few miles below Potsdam village, owes its existence to a mill in operation between 1840 and 1850 by persons from the east. It was burned in 1852. Pomeroy & Pearson built a mill on the site, which they operated for a few years. In 1866 George W. Sisson settled there, and in partnership with Alfred H. Griswold erected a new mill with six gangs of saws, which produced about 65,000 feet of lumber a day. In 1875 Augustus Sherman, of Glens Falls, became a partner in the mill, when the firm name of A. Sherman Lumber Company was adopted.

This arrangement continued until 1885. In 1886, after the death of Sherman, William R. and Frederick A. Weed, grandsons of Sherman, came into the business as partners, and was operated by them until 1894. The mill capacity was upwards of 100,000 feet per day, and it also had machinery for cutting slabs into lath; a shingle mill with a capacity of 25,000 per day, a planting mill with capacity of 60,000 feet per day, and a box factory from which a carload can be turned out daily. Logs for the mill came from the south woods down the river, as far as fifty miles away. The firm owns 40,000 acres of timber land tributary to the Raquette River. About 150 hands were employed by them. In 1881 the saw mill was burned, with 2,000,000 feet of lumber and twenty dwellings. The mill was rebuilt, and other property restored as far as possible.

-Information from, "From our Country and its People: A Menorial Record of St. Lawrence County."