In 1942, L.M. "Bud" Hampton bought a small sawmill in Willamina, Oregon, to furnish lumber for his Tacoma, Washington, retail yard. He had owned the retail yard since 1935 and when World War II started, it became very difficult to buy lumber. From that modest beginning the company has developed into a major entity in timberland ownership, lumber manufacturing, and global wholesale lumber and plywood activities with total sales exceeding $800 million and 1,400 employees. The affiliated companies continue to be owned by the Hampton family, who support a strong growth strategy.

Hampton Lumber Mills, Inc. now includes eight sawmill complexes which manufacture lumber for domestic and export markets. The older sites include Willamina Lumber in Willamina, Oregon, which manufactures primarily green Douglas fir dimension lumber and the Tillamook Lumber in Tillamook, Oregon, purchased in 1986, which produces kiln dried hemlock dimension lumber. In 1999, the company acquired two stud mills in Morton and Randle, Washington. These mills, known as Cowlitz Studs, added stud lumber to Hampton’s product line. In February 2002, the company purchased a sawmill in Darrington, Washington. In 2006, Hampton acquired 89% interest in Babine Forest Products and Decker Lake Forest Products, sawmills in Burns Lake, B.C., Canada, adding 375 million board feet of spruce production. The Burns Lake Native Development Corporation retained 11% ownership in the two B.C. sawmills.* Hampton’s most recent sawmill acquisition was in Warrenton, Oregon, which started up operations in 2011 after extensive remodeling and produces both kiln-dried Douglas fir and hemlock lumber. 

The Hampton mills combined have production capacity of approximately 2.3 billion board feet of lumber per year, making Hampton one of the largest lumber producers in North America. These mills utilize modern machinery and equipment with computer-operated machine centers, as competition for public and private timber makes it absolutely necessary to utilize each log to its fullest potential. Staying competitive also means training and retaining a skilled and highly-motivated work force. Hampton’s company culture calls for doing business in a safe and sustainable manner, so capital improvement projects include safety, energy efficiency, and environmental components.

HLS, based in Portland, Oregon, is a wholesale lumber and panel operation with over 30 sales representatives who market over 2 billion board feet of outside lumber and panels annually, in addition to the Hampton mills production. The HLS Export Division serves overseas markets, while the Import Division brings quality imported wood products to its domestic customers.

Hampton Affiliates owns approximately 90,000 acres of timberland in Oregon and Washington, which are managed pursuant to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) principles and are third party audited. These lands provide a base load of raw material to its Oregon and Washington mills, which is supplemented by government-owned timber, open-market purchases of timber and logs, and acquisitions of private timberland. Hampton also manages close to 300,000 acres of public timberland in British Columbia for its Babine and Decker Lake sawmills.

* A tragic explosion and fire destroyed Hampton’s Babine sawmill in January 2012. Hampton is currently planning to rebuild the sawmill for start-up in 2014.

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