The Adolf Hertrich & Vanport Sawmill Story
by Phil Jonsrud
Adolf Hertrich was born in Hohenalthiem, Bavaria, Germany in 1933. After finishing high school in Germany, he came to the U.S. (in 1953) where he had an uncle in Michigan. Adolf spent two years in the U.S. Army, then enrolled in the University of Michigan where he received a degree in Forestry. He returned to Germany where he spent a year studying at the University of Freiburg in the Black Forest.
He then returned to the U.S. where he went to work for the U.S. Forest Service, being stationed at Bear Springs, Ripplebrook, and the Government Camp areas, all in the Mt. Hood National Forest. After seven years, he left the Forest Service to go into the lumber business. In 1967;,Adolf, Joe Yoerger, John Hillyard and Jimmy Moore formed a corporation known as Vanport Manufacturing Co, Inc. At the same time they bought the John Valberg sawmills and planer mill in Boring OR, then later bought the adjacent stud mill (started by John Harris) from Walter Koch, Jr. The Valberg was completely remodeled into a new method sawmill called a “beaver mill”. This new method was the first of its kind in this area and utilized logs up to 14 inches in diameter.
Instead of running a log back and forth many times through a saw to cut it into lumber, a log was fed into the mill, first to have the bark removed; then through the beaver mill which had cutter heads on four sides that chewed the slabs into chips; then this squared timber went through a re-saw that cut the timber into lumber. In one shot through the mill, bark was removed to be sold to landscapers; chips were produced to go to paper mills; and the lumber was manufactured. Better yet, smaller logs (down to 4 inches in diameter) could now be used. Prior to this the small logs were left standing in the woods, unprotected, to soon blow down in a strong wind. It is easy to see how this increased production, utilized smaller trees and made sawmills more profitable. Meanwhile, Vanport’s larger higher-quality logs were exported to Japan for a good price. With Hertrich’s knowledge and experience in forestry, he knew where the timber was and how to bid the timber sales so that with timber from the national forest and some purchases of privately owned timber, they were able to keep the mill running.
The business went well until a new U.S. law in the early 1970s prohibited the export of logs from the U.S. Forest Service land. This changed the picture for Vanport when they could no longer export their quality logs. It also changed the picture for the Japanese who like to do their own milling of the U.S. logs into lumber but now could not get the U.S. logs. Hertrich was able to get the Japanese to begin buying lumber instead of logs from the U.S. this meant that Vanport had to make some drastic changes to be able to produce lumber that fit the Japanese needs. The mill had to be remodeled again, adding a band head saw, edger’s, etc. to handle the larger logs which Vanport used to export. It was also necessary to change to the metric system for different measurement of lumber, and Japanese government graders had to train Vanport’s graders to different specifications to comply with Japanese standards. Because the Japanese used a post and beam method of single-wall construction, more wood was exposed in their homes so the appearance of lumber became important. The Japanese government controls the licensing of lumber graders, and Vanport was pleased to become the first mill outside of Japan to receive a license.
The Vanport Corporation was set up so that as the various owners retired, the corporation would buy out their interest. Jimmy Moore retired first for health reasons. John Hillyard retired next and Joe Yoerger in 1976. Joe and Jimmy are now deceased but John is now (in 2001) in his 90s and living in Sandy. (Note; John passed away Dec.31 2001 at the age of 93. Adolf and his wife, Gabriele, live in Sandy/Boring. He is still Chairman of Vanport Mfg. His son Martin is President of Vanport Mfg. All three attended the quarterly meeting of the Sandy Historical Society in October, where they were honored and their contribution to the community was celebrated.)
By moving quickly and paying attention to detail in providing lumber products to meet Japan’s need for housing, Vanport got the jump on other U.S. mills and was able to operate two shifts per day for most of the next 25 years. Under Adolf Hertrich’s leadership, Vanport became a success story. The mill employed about 230 workers during peak times and just over 180 during lower times. This was the largest industry ever in the Sandy area and was the major producer of jobs to keep the economy good for the 32 years they were in operation. So, it was a sad day in the spring of 1999 when the Vanport mill was closed for lack of adequate log supply. Vanport had depended on Mt Hood National Forest for its logs. Today, the annual timber harvest is less than 10% of what it used to be, which would not be enough to sustain Vanport’s sawmill. While the Boring mill has closed, the Vanport corporation has become a lumber broker, dealing internationally with logs and lumber from such places as Canada, Russia and Europe.