Family still sends wooden holiday cards
EUGENE, Ore. – Despite closing their sawmill in Mapleton, the Davidson family is sticking with their annual practice of sending out wooden Christmas cards to keep the holiday tradition alive for a 32nd year.
The wooden cards begin with a tree felled in a wintery Oregon forest – grand fir, for instance, or Pacific yew or Oregon ash. By March, a craftsman has begun the process of planing, sanding and carving the word “NOEL,” along with branding the four-digit year into the wood and applying a semi-gloss finish.
The final touch is an ode to the particular kind of wood penned by the company forester, printed on gold foil and applied to the back of the card.
People not on the Davidson Christmas list may see the cards hanging around Lane County.
The Siuslaw Bank in Mapleton arranges them in tree shape on a wall. Until its recent sale, the Gingerbread Village restaurant displayed them for decades. Ramsey-Waite Co. owner George Karotko keeps them on his Glenwood office bulletin board year around.
“Let’s face it, that’s what Oregon was – it was wood country. And the cards are certainly a reminder of that,” Karotko said.
Davidson Industries began a half century ago when Sherm Davidson bought the sawmill on the bank of the Siuslaw River. His son, Don-Lee, oversaw the mill’s heyday a quarter century ago, when 450 Davidson employees produced more than 100 million board feet of lumber per year.
The Davidsons celebrated their good fortune every December when employees first would deck out the mill, stringing lights along the heavy chains at the entryway and stationing a glowing plastic Santa in the guardhouse.
In those days, a band of merry revelers led by Don-Lee’s daughter-in-law, Sue, would head for the Mapleton Lions Club to transform the old gym into a children’s holiday wonderland.
“They would spend days decorating,” said Peggy Simington, whose husband was a 25-year employee and whose daughter attended the parties.
In the peak year, 217 employees’ children came to see not only the Davidson Santa Claus, but Mrs. Claus and two elves, too.
And there were presents: sleeping bags, fishing poles, punching bags, jewelry boxes, clock radios, wooden drums, basketballs, footballs, soccer balls and every possible Nerf toy.
When Don-Lee Davidson is asked why his father started the tradition, he shrugs: “Anyone would.”
“These guys live it,” said Paul Ehinger, an industry consultant and observer. “When you’re a small mill in a small town, you live the life. You are a participant.”
Davidson Industries was Mapleton’s largest employer, benefactor to the school district, supporter of sports teams.
But by the late 1990s, the employee count dipped below 100. Last year, production was one-fifth what it was at its peak.