BLACKFOOT, Idaho — A lumber company is still selling off relics of the Southern Pacific Railroad's "Lucin Cutoff" — a 12-mile wooden trestle across the Great Salt Lake.
Trestlewood Division has been selling salvaged beams treasured for their strength, beauty and salt-encrusted fire resistance since the last of the trestle was dismantled and replaced by a solid-fill causeway for rail traffic.
Cannon Structures Inc. obtained salvage rights in 1993 to the trestle from T.C. Taylor Co., Ltd., which had previously acquired the rights from Southern Pacific. Cannon established its Trestlewood Division in Blackfoot, Idaho, to salvage the wood for resale.
After reclaiming about 30 million board feet, Trestlewood still has 7 million board feet of Douglas fir and redwood to sell.
The beams and planks come with a certificate verifying their origin, "a big part of our marketing," said Bob Cannon, Trestlewood's vice president of sales. "A lot of people like to know where their material comes from."
There's a growing market for old timber.
"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."
Longtime Trestlewood client Bryce Broughton of Teton Timber Frame in Driggs, Idaho, has been using the reclaimed beams for more than a decade, leaving them visible from the inside of houses.
"It's seasoned wood, and it's very stable," Broughton said. "It's less likely to shrink or check, twist or warp."
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.
Years of exposure from the Great Salt Lake's minerals and brine pickled the poles sunk into the lake bed, streaking them red, yellow, black and purple.
Although the trestle was designated as a historic landmark, historians didn't oppose its demise for salvage. Storms routinely knocked off pieces, and Trestlewood donated material, including seven of the poles, to a railroad museum.