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  Department: Sustain  Department: Sustain

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The Ghost Wood team’s mission statement is “To insure

Ghost Wood is as green and eco-riendly as reclaimed wood

by utilizing dead standing timber, preserving our Ghost

Towns, restoring water sheds and stream restoration projects,and recycling all by-products.”

Toward this end the olks

at Bitterroot Valley Forest

Products o Missoula spent

$150,000 developing a wood

product that looks and eels

like old barns, whether gray,

brown, red, or blackened. It

costs about hal the price

as recycled lumber and is

ar less wasteul. Thirty-

seventy percent o reclaimed

wood ends up being un-

usable due to rot, splits, and

deects. And the Ghost

Wood product prevents ghost

towns and other abandoned

structures rom being

ravaged. According to Mike

Thompson o Bozeman’s

Kenyon Noble, “There’s a

ton o interest in it.”

The idea o coming up with a new product started two years

ago. The company originally wanted to develop a product

using new wood to make it look old or to make it resemble

reclaimed barn wood. Reclaimed wood had become very

popular, but or many people it is not aordable and or 

many contractors it is not an easy product to install. Ater 

Montana Ghost Wood Invented by Bitterroot Valley Forest Products

Article by Valerie Harms • Photos by Tyler Wantulok

countless hours o experimenting (many late nights in a

garage) Haywood Jones, general manager, invented the

machine to put the weathered texture on any raw board,

and Ryan Palma came up with the rest o the processes tomake a piece o wood that looked identical to reclaimed

barn wood.

Numerous more hours were

spent developing custom

machines to mass-produce the

new product. They knew that

the choice o a name would

be a valuable key to jump-

start the new product. Since

the employees at Bitterroot

Valley Forest Products are

native Montanans, they

were amiliar with the ghost

towns and old barns, ranging

in shades rom brown, rust,

black, grey, to silver. Jim

Edinger, owner, decided to

name their new product

“Montana Ghost Wood.”

Montana Ghost

Wood products

Bannack Brown is the original color, named ater 

the old structures in Bannack State Park. Most o these

buildings have the original wood with a beautiul brown

patina.

Founded in 1862, Bannack was where the great Montana

Ghost

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boom began. Many prospectors, reugees rom the Civil War,

and businessmen hoping to strike it rich rushed to Bannack,

then known as the Queen o the Gold Camps. Thievery

and vigilantes abounded. In 1864, Bannack was named as

the rst Territor ial Capital o Montana. From the late 1860’s

to the 1930’s, Bannack continued as a mining town where

individuals experimented with mining techniques and raised

amilies. By the 1950’s most people had let and the State

o Montana declared Bannack a state park. Today over 60

structures o raw beauty may be viewed.

Silver City is the second color that Ghost Wood produced.

The idea was to replicate the silver-gray look o reclaimed

barn wood ound in the Silver Bow Creek Valley around

Butte, where sit some o the most beautiul si lver barn wood

structures in the state. Because many o the team members

have relatives in Butte, it was an easy choice or their second

product.

Also, they were inspired by Butte’s history as the “richest

hill on earth,” when it was the nation’s largest single source

o silver in the late 19th century and the largest source o 

copper until the 1930’s.

Ruby River is the third color o the Ghost Wood product

line. A avorite place to sh, the Ruby River was named

or the deceptive red garnets that early settlers mistook

or rubies. The Ruby River begins in the Gravelly Range

o southwest Montana, fows down these mountains into

a valley that lies between the Ruby Range to the southand the magnicent Tobacco Root mountains to the north.

The river ends with the confuence o the Jeerson River at

Twin Bridges. In this region are a handul o 100-year-old

barns that were painted red many years ago. The red paint

has aded away on most o these barns, leaving beautiul

structures with weathered patinas o red and silver-grey.

Blackfoot is the latest color or Ghost Wood. Like the

Ruby River, the olks at the company have spent a lot o 

time shing the Blackoot River. Here too are old wood

structures that have aged to a color o black and brown-rust.

This river has some o the most colorul old barns along its

banks in Montana.

The town and river were named ater the Blackeet Indians.

One story is that painting one’s moccasins black gave

one power to catch bualo. Another is that the Indians’

moccasins turned black when they crossed burned prairies.

Regardless, the tribe was named Siksiksa, which translates

to Blackeet.

The Blackoot River begins along the Continental Divide

in the mountains outside Lincoln and fows through scenic

and diverse countryside or 130 miles beore its confuence

with the Clark Fork near the town o Bonner.

Meriwether Lewis traveled along the Blackoot River on

his return trip across Montana. It became a transportation

corridor or years, serving Indians, trappers, miners, andloggers. The rst large-scale timber cutting started in 1885

at Bonner; its principal customer was copper king, Marcus

Daly.

In 1992, the release o the movie  A River Runs Through

It  (made on the Blackoot) attracted many people to the

state. Today, the Blackoot River is one o the more popular 

rivers in Montana or fy-shing, rating, and just relaxing.

In the upper hal o the river, the Blackoot runs slowly

through dense orests with brushy and timbered banks.

Numerous logjams are ound in the river. Beginning near 

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For an in-home consultation, call: Bozeman/Big Sky 406.585.7755, Billings/Red Lodge 406.657.5507

Missoula/Bitteroot 406.251.4802, Helena 406.449.0000, Kalispell 406.755.5507

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For an in-home consultation, call: Bozeman/Big Sky 406.585.0855, Billings/Red Lodge 406.655.1611

Missoula/Bitteroot 406.543.9990, Helena 406.442.0095, Kalispell 406.755.7525, Big Fork 406.873.6859

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River Junction Fishing Access Site, about the halway point,

the Blackoot picks up velocity and fows through a broad,

sparsely wooded plain. A wildlie preserve exists on the ar 

side o the road to the north o the r iver. This section is an

excellent spot to observe elk, moose, deer, and bears. The

river then fows through a beautiul canyon and emerges

rom the mountains just a couple o miles above the ClarkFork.

Montana Ghost Wood comes not only in colors but also

several textures.

• Weathered:This texture resembles the worn look o 

reclaimed wood. The grain o the wood is raised to give it

a weathered appearance.

• Circle Sawn Weathered: This texture resembles the

weathered texture but also reveals subtle saw kers beneath

the surace. The depth o this texture makes it dicult tonotice the dierence between Ghost Wood and reclaimed

barn wood.

• Montana Hewn: This look resembles the traditional

drawknie and adzed appearance let behind by the artisans

who created it by hand.

The company supports sustainable orestry practices. One

way is by using re and beetle-killed trees. As they explain,

selective removal o dead trees reduces crowding, encourages

the growth o younger trees, and maintains a diversity o 

species, ages, and sizes. I done properly, selective cuttingdecreases the ability o re to spread, soil to erode, and trees

to blow down on campers, roads, power lines.

Until recently cutting dead trees didn’t seem to make

sense. But when trees are killed through periodic res or 

beetle epidemics, the wood remains and slowly dries out

over years—even decades—o low humidity in the Rocky

Mountain area. In this way it is naturally cured and becomes

extremely stable or use in construction.

When live trees are used or building homes or businesses,

allowances have to be made or settling and shrinking.

  Joints may have to be routed to prevent gaps. The wood

must be kiln or air dried. With dead timber the shrinkage

and warpage have already occurred. Dead trees dry to

the centers o their trunks as they age. Using them is less

labor-intensive. Dead timber is also more economical than

reclaimed lumber.

Removing dead trees is thus a green, sustainable act, as the

lumber can be employed in solid, handsome constructions.

Once cleared, the orest can quickly regenerate and make

way as it always does or new growth. Using dead trees is

much better too than vandalizing old mining camps and

ghost towns, which may be historic treasures, o its wood.

The company also supports wood obtained rom sawmills

that have Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or Sustainable

Forestry Initiative (SFI) certication, which ensures that the

wood comes rom orests managed in an environmentallysound way. Trusted environmental organizations, including

Greenpeace, National Wildlie Federation, The Nature

Conservancy, Sierra Club, and World Wildlie Fund all

support and encourage such certication. Consumers

wishing to support healthy orests and communities can

look and ask or the certication label when purchasing

wood or paper products.

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Montana Ghost Wood is part o an enterprise that has had

a long history in Montana. J & R Planning was ounded in

1976 and has continued as the parent company o all ensuing

entities. In 1990, a second plant, named Montana West,

was added. This acility was created to handle a growing

demand or the custom packaging o lumber species. In

1993, still another business would be added to the successul J & R amily. This acility, the smallest o the three, is known

as Western Montana Millwork. It was primarily set up to

handle a proprietary trim product, called Alltrim. In the

mid-1990’s, management recognized a need or its own sales

department in order to ensure uture growth or their plants.

Thus, in 1997 Bitterroot Valley Forest Products was created.

Ghost Wood was launched in 2007.

The parent company, Bitterroot Valley Forest Products,

works with the Big Blackoot Chapter o Trout Unlimited

to restore the Blackoot River watershed. It also contributes

to the Montana Ghost Town Preservation Society. The

company is proud o its green products—rom homes

to mantels and doors—and partnering with groups that

benet Montana. Ryan Palma (Sales & Marketing) adds,

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~ Valerie Harms, the editor of Distinctly Montana magazine,

is the author of nine books and numerous articles. See more 

about her at www.valerieharms.com.

“We developed a partnership with R&R Conner Aviation

recently. This helicopter logging company was eatured on

the “Ax Men” TV show on the History Channel. We are

buying standing dead logs rom them or manuacturing

large Ghost Wood timbers. Because they are currently not

logging due to the bad economic situation, we are trying to

promote this in order to get them back to work.

“Our goal or Ghost Wood is to be a positive infuence on

all parties we are involved with. From loggers to preservation

and everyone in between.”

For more inormation, see http://www.bvpmontana.com

or www.mtghostwood.com.

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