Viewing Object

Sawmill located in Fort Langley, on the Fraser River on the west side of the Haldi Bridge. Developed in 1920s by Messers Irvin, Young and Kidd of New Westminster. Believed they started using the site as a tie mill in about 1928 or 1929, and later enlarged the operation to include dimension lumber. Wilfred (Winky) Muench used to graze his cattle on the west end of the mill site. The mill used to burn their waste on the land to the west of the mill, but with a breeze it got all of the village ladies laundry dirty. Local tradition records the mill as having a series of short-term owners in the 1930s. An Indo-Canadian, Lal Singh, bought the mill in the mid 1930s and ran it as the Fort Langley Sawmill. Singh sold the mill to a New Westminster firm (John R. Morley) who ran it as "Fort Langley Sawmills Limited" and subsequently sold it to McLellan and Fred Chadwick in about 1942. Chadwick built the water tower. The Langley Advance newspaper reported on May 11, 1939, that Langley businessmen were among the 17 who formed a company to acquire the Sawmill, which had been sitting idle for the previous 18 months. Due to flooding in the 1940s, a raised platform was built, as well as a larger dyke in 1949. The mill burned in the early 1950s and was rebuilt in 1951-52 as McDonald Cedar, by Bob and Ian McDonald. The McDonalds built the beehive burner in the mid 1950s. Sauder Industries purchased the mill in 1973, but retained the familiar McDonald Cedar name for many years afterward. The mill later became part of the Interfor network of mills. Dimension lumber ceased to be manufactured in about 1977, when the mill was retooled to become a remanufacturing plant. The mill operated until 1996 and was demolished and sold as the Bedford Landing housing development in approximately 2006. Also includes the Fort-to-Fort trail, which, in 2010, began including artifacts along the trail, including a 50 foot saw, to commemorate the mill.

The McDonald Cedar Mill was started by William McDonald Sr. in 1895 on the south side of 48th Avenue beside Barichello's farm in Murrayville. It mill cut rough lumber and shipped to Bellingham for processing by rail. It closed in 1912 when William Sr. sold and moved to Cloverdale. The family lived in Murrayville.