MISSOULA — Pyramid Mountain Lumber, which has provided jobs in Seeley Lake for 75 years, announced on Thursday, March 14, 2024, that they will be shutting down this Spring.
Missoula County Commissioner Dave Strohmaier said on Friday that they've been in talks with Pyramid Mountain Lumber's leadership team and have also reached out to Montana's Congressional leadership and the Governor's Office as Thursday’s news broke.
Strohmaier tells MTN that this closure is going to have an impact across Missoula County and beyond — and a lot of the problems stem from a dwindling workforce and available housing in the area. In the weeks ahead, as Pyramid Mountain Lumber begins to close its operations, there will be conversations about finding solutions.
“We're going to be collectively looking at what options are there out there. If that means workforce training, if that means temporary housing, if it means looking for ways to basically retool their operations to meet current market demands -- we’ll be looking at all those options...not easy, no easy solutions here whatsoever but we want to look for as positive a path forward as possible, Strohmaier said.
Strohmaier also says the closure emphasizes the importance of continuing to invest in our timber industry capacity because once facilities like Pyramid are lost, it's difficult if not impossible to easily bring them back online.
According to their website, Pyramid Mountain Lumber has been family-owned and operated since 1949 and it is the oldest surviving family-owned and operated lumber mill in Montana.
Click here to view information about sawmills that have closed in the Treasure State since 1990 as provided by the Montana Wood Products Association.
