Swanson Bark & Wood Products Inc

About Swanson Bark & Wood Products Inc

The smell of fresh-cut bark and sawdust still drifts off the wood yards along the Columbia the way it has since log rafts first came down the Cowlitz to Long-Bell's mill, and Swanson Bark & Wood Products Inc has spent its years turning that raw material into mulch and landscape wood used all over town. Winter slows the yard's pace but never stops it outright, and when snow covers the loading areas and the lanes between the piles, the loaders that move bark by the ton get fitted with blades to push it clear instead. Customer driveways and the lots out front get the same treatment, cleared before the gate opens for the day's pickups. A river town's oldest industry, kept moving on the mornings the weather would rather it didn't.