On Friday, June 19, surrounded by saw blades that helped build a family home, a two-man chain saw, a plethora of family photos and, of course, lumber, Day Lumber marked a milestone few businesses make: 100 years.
Over that century, the business moved from Missouri to Colorado, and focused at various times on logging, sawmill and retail lumber sales.
But, through multiple locations and focuses, the company, and the three generations of Days to run it, have focused on adapting, changing and doing what needs to be done, as Rocky Day puts it.
Day Lumber was started by Art Day on June 19, 1926, on a 1,200-acre farm in Salem, Mo., where he logged and hewed railroad ties by hand for the railroad, according to a history of Day Lumber put together by Roxanna Day Wills, daughter of current owner Rocky Day.
“After enough money was made, machinery equipment was purchased to have a full running logging and sawmill operation with crews,” Day Wills wrote, adding her grandpa had many stories about him and his brother growing up at a sawmill camp and how his mother cooked for the hungry men working the camp.
Twenty years after Day Lumber was established, the family’s story became one that sounds familiar to many today: The family was on a vacation that brought them through Pagosa Springs, they were drawn to the area, and the family decided to make the move.
That happened in 1946, according to Day Wills, when the family “saw the incredible abundance of natural resources and made the decision to move here.”
The family, she notes, lived above an icehouse where San Juan Mercantile is today, and the logging and sawmill operations stayed in the forest until the company’s current property along U.S. 160 was purchased.
For 14 years, she notes, the family lived in mill shacks on the site of the company’s current operations until the family’s log home was completed in 1960.
In 1952, a pivotal event took place for the company and the Days.
“In 1952 a large logging contract was won by Day Lumber up Burns Canyon,” Day Wills wrote. “That contract would be the reason my dad, his brother and sisters, my cousins and me are here today.”
That contract, she notes, required another sawmill operation and more workers. An ad was placed in the Kansas City Star, drawing a family of nine from Jessieville, Ark., to town.
Day Wills notes her grandmother was just 14 years old when her grandpa, a tall man in overalls10 years her senior, asked, “Are you Arkies lost?”
The pair — Etta Fay and Paul Day — were married on Dec. 27, 1953.
The union led to four children: Paulette, Rocky, Tracy and Ben.
Day Wills notes it was over the course of those years her grandfather, Paul Day, and his brother, Vernon Day, took over operations of the business from their father.
“Then in 1967, the family mill burnt down,” Day Wills wrote.
The fire, according to the June 29, 1967, SUN, started when a “freak wind” hit the property.
“The wind, rather like a whirlwind, apparently carried a spark from trash burner to the sawmill building and started a fire,” it states.
It notes the county’s fire department, as well as the U.S. Forest Service and even the San Juan Lumber Company responded to the fire, which smoldered for days and at one point created a minor traffic jam.
That time, Day Wills notes, showed the type of man her grandfather was.
“He could have just thrown in the towel and said he was done,” she wrote. “Instead, a sawmill rose from the ashes. Money was short, and resources were hard to come by, but ... he built a sawmill from the ashes, virtually by himself.”
She notes that, through the guidance of Butch Schoonover, he taught himself to weld, rebuild used transmissions and more, and used “all of his Paul Day ingenuity, working day and night during the winter to be able to be up and running by spring.”
She adds, “He succeeded, not for glory, but for the purpose of being able to provide for his family.”
That, she states, is who her grandpa was, calling him the hardest-working man she’s ever known.
The thread of doing what needs to be done continued through additional challenges for the business.
Day Wills notes Day Lumber was also inventive and “fearless” when it came to logging, taking on contracts when others wouldn’t or when others quit mid-job because they were unable to finish it because the terrain was too steep.
“One of those jobs,” Day Wills writes, “was in preparation for the East Fork Gas Pipeline. No company entered a bid; it was too steep.”
The Forest Service was desperate, she notes, so, instead of selling the timber, the agency told Day Lumber if it could do the job, it could “have it all.”
Day Wills notes her grandpa found that if they strapped two 550-gallon barrels full of water behind the back tires of his F-600, it would have enough traction to reach the top.
Coming down the hill loaded, she notes, he’d put it in the lowest gear, with all the brakes he had, and made sure the door was open because if anything went wrong there wouldn’t be enough time for him to open the door and bail out.
“He never had to,” she wrote. “The Day Lumber crew completed the job.”
She adds, “There are many more stories like this one that helped create the Day Lumber legacy.”
In the mid-1970s, things at Day Lumber became less adventurous, but continued to adapt to changing times.
In 1974, Day Wills relays, Paul Day, “fed up with all the rules and regulations set in place for logging and sawmills,” sold the company’s logging operations to Wolf Creek Industries, with Day Lumber retaining the retail lumber portion.
Rocky Day noted his uncle, Vernon Day, retired when the logging portion was sold off.
At that same time, he relayed, his dad bought a truck and began hauling house logs.
However, Rocky Day explained he likes sawmilling “way better” than the lumber part.
He went to work for Wolf Creek Industries, becoming head sawyer within a year and a half.
He explained he liked creating something and the challenges that came with cracked, dead trees and producing a product that could help make a really good house.
Rocky Day returned fully to the family business in 1987, where he remains today.
Rocky Day jokes that the scariest part of Day Lumber turning 100 is realizing he’s been around for 70 of those years.
Rocky Day took the reins of Day Lumber when Paul Day passed away in 2015.
“I had to keep it going,” Rocky Day said, adding he always wanted to keep the business going and had worked there with his dad for a lot of years.
He indicated one of the best parts of working at the family’s long-running business are the relationships he’s built.
He highlighted the relationships with the salespeople Day Lumber works with, who they may talk to multiple times a day, noting he’s developed some “really good friendships” over the years.
He also pointed out that several of their longtime salespeople — including one who has since retired, but who Rocky Day has known at least 30 years and another who has been promoted to much higher in the company — showed up to the 100th anniversary party last week.
“It was pretty cool Friday to see all the people who showed up,” he said.
Rocky Day also noted getting to help people as a highlight, adding they’ll sometimes come in not knowing exactly what they need and it’s “neat” to be able to help people head in the right direction.
The next 100 years
Rocky Day noted that, behind Goodman’s Department Store, Day Lumber is the second-oldest business in Archuleta County outside of some of the area’s longtime ranches.
“So, that’s kinda cool,” he said.
And there’s no plans to change that anytime soon.
Keeping the business going is Rocky Day’s goal and he steers the business into its next 100 years.
He noted he was taught growing up that you can do anything you’re big enough to do.
He indicated he hopes to add to the company’s staff of four — him, Deanna, Bruce and Zane — to help keep things running and so he can step away more to enjoy life outside the lumber yard.
He also indicated there’s a possibility that Day Lumber will one day be passed along to another generation of Days.
“Who knows what’ll happen,” he said.
randi@pagosasun.com
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