(The Associated Press circulated the following article on October 12.)
BLACKFOOT, Idaho — More than a century after Southern Pacific Railroad’s 12-mile Lucin Cutoff wooden trestle conquered the Great Salt Lake, and more than a decade after it was dismantled, it continues to live on.
But now all it spans is time, bringing history into modern-day construction.
Since 1993, Trestlewood, a Blackfoot lumber company, has been selling the salvaged wood from the 1904 structure valued not only for its beauty but also for its strength to people who want a piece of history in their homes or businesses.
In all, Trestlewood reclaimed about 30 million board feet, about 10 million of which was above water. The company has 7 million board feet of Douglas fir and redwood left.
Wood sold from the historic trestle comes with a certificate verifying its origin, which many homeowners cherish as much as the look of the salt-stained timber, said Bob Cannon, Trestlewood’s vice president of sales.
“That has been a big part of our marketing,” he told the Idaho Falls Post Register. “A lot of people like to know where their material comes from.”
The move toward reclaimed wood started about 25 years ago but has really taken off in the past decade.
“I’ll take floor joists out of a 150-year-old house, and people put them in as open beams in their living room,” said Peggy Milnes, who owns The Barnwood Connection in Barto, Pa. “The last 10 years or so, it’s gotten huge — and it’s getting bigger, which is good, because otherwise it heads to the dump.”
Historians aren’t always too keen on pulling down old buildings, but unless a building is on the National Historic Register, there’s not too much they can do, Milnes said.
Longtime Trestlewood client Bryce Broughton of Teton Timber Frame in Driggs has been using reclaimed wood for more than a decade.
“The main reason I like to use it is that it’s seasoned wood, and it’s very stable,” he said. “It’s less likely to shrink or check, twist or warp.”
The company’s post-and-beam structures leave the wood visible from the inside, turning it into what Broughton describes as a giant piece of furniture.
“My clients really like the character,” Broughton said. “It’s a good reuse of material that has already had one life.”
Since 1997, Trestlewood’s inventory also has included Southern yellow pine salvaged from the Spiegel Building in Chicago; narrow, short boards from the floors of rail cars; and a dark-red wood imported from wool houses in Australia.
“A lot of people want to build a new home that looks like it’s 100 years old,” Cannon said. “The look of hand-hewn wood and barn wood — it’s hard to duplicate what nature does. It’s hard to get an authentic look.”
Unless you have a 100-year-old bridge. Years of exposure to the lake’s brine pickled the poles sunk into the lake bed. Reclaimed timbers are streaked red, yellow, black and even purple from the minerals that leached through the water and into the grain of submerged poles. It’s this wood that reveals the beauty Trestlewood now highlights in a line of wood flooring.
Although the trestle was designated as a historic landmark, historians didn’t oppose its demise for salvage. Storms routinely knocked off pieces of the trestle, and Trestlewood donated material, including seven of the poles, to a railroad museum.