Souhegan Wood Products, or SWP, is a company located in Wilton, New Hampshire

Wilton, New Hampshire

- Demographics :As of the census of 2000, there were 3,743 people, 1,410 households, and 1,023 families living in the town. The population density was 145.3 people per square mile . There were 1,451 housing units at an average density of 56.3 per square mile...

, that specializes in the manufacture and distribution of a variety of recycled wood products.

History

Souhegan Wood Products (SWP) was founded in 1941 when C. Randolph "Randy" Myer purchased a sawmill and began running a dressing mill in order to process some of the two billion trees downed by the New England Hurricane of 1938

New England Hurricane of 1938

The New England Hurricane of 1938 was the first major hurricane to strike New England since 1869...

. The name "Souhegan" is derived from the nearby Souhegan River

Souhegan River

The Souhegan River is a tributary of the Merrimack River in the northeastern United States. long with a drainage area of , it flows north and east through southern New Hampshire to the Merrimack River....

, a tributary of the Merrimack River

Merrimack River

The Merrimack River is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Massachusetts, and then flows northeast until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Newburyport...

. During this period, the amount of wood going to waste was overwhelming, and solutions to wood waste were in high demand. Randolph Myer, a 1924 graduate as a mechanical engineer of MIT, became interested in using wood waste from lumbering operations after working for Longbelle Lumber Company, out of Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, on their operations in Washington state. There he observed the amount of waste remaining after processing. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, SWP manufactured ammunition boxes for the government. The war also created such a sharp demand for lumber that SWP was distributing wood nearly as a fast as it was cut, not allowing the wood time to dry. Myer built a dry kiln

Kiln

A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, or oven, in which a controlled temperature regime is produced. Uses include the hardening, burning or drying of materials...

, where wood could dry as rapidly as five days. By 1944, the company had developed a particle board

Particle board

Particle board, or particleboard , is an engineered wood product manufactured from wood particles, such as wood chips, sawmill shavings, or even saw dust, and a synthetic resin or other suitable binder, which is pressed and extruded...

 called "Plaswood" that they manufactured until 1954, when the company expanded its manufacture of molded products.

Location

Souhegan Wood Products is housed at the Souhegan Mills, located in the town of Wilton in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire

Hillsborough County, New Hampshire

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 380,841 people, 144,455 households, and 98,807 families residing in the county. The population density was 435 people per square mile . There were 149,961 housing units at an average density of 171 per square mile...

. Wilton is located approximately 60 miles (96.6 km) northwest of Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 and 45 miles (72.4 km) southwest of Concord

Concord, New Hampshire

The city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,695....

, the capital of New Hampshire. The mill was built in 1925 by the Souhegan Apple Packing Association for the sorting, storage, and packing of apples. In 1938 David Whiting and Sons purchased the property and turned it into a dressing mill. C. Randolph Myer purchased the mill in 1941 and installed a dry kiln; both the kiln and the mill burned in a fierce fire in 1944. The mill was rebuilt in the same year, and Souhegan Wood Products returned to the manufacture of ammunition boxes for the army.

Wood Recycling

Souhegan Wood Products acquires all of its waste wood from a variety of woodworking enterprises within 100 miles of its Wilton facility. In its 65 year history, SWP has produced a diverse array of wood products, including bases for brushes, wheel rims for tea carts, and Banjo heads. Currently SWP focuses on the manufacture of Belt-Winding shells, "Corsaver" core-plugs, center-hole core plugs, casket tops, as well as veneered casket tops. The Belt-winding cores are made from graded and softwood particles, combined under heat and pressure. They are extruded cylinders of graded wood particles compounded with high strength resins and square center holes.

Present

Souhegan Wood Products is in its fourth generation of family ownership. Current design developments include paper plugs, as well as a staved extruded core that provides both high beam and compression strength. Today, SWP ships its products nationally and internationally to customers in Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, Holland, Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

, Malaysia, and South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

.

External links

• http://www.souheganwood.com/
• http://www.niba.org/
• http://www.wiltonlibrarynh.org