Neiman Enterprises, a forest products company, is permanently closing its sawmill in Hill City, South Dakota, laying off 120 employees.
The Rushmore Forest Products sawmill, according to Neiman, no longer has an adequate supply of timber.
“I never thought I’d see the day when we’d run out of options to keep all our facilities going,” Neiman Enterprises CEO Jim Neiman said.
“Lumber markets have been unusually strong in recent years, breaking all-time highs. The problem here is that there is a scarcity of available timber for purchase in the Black Hills, and we rely on the Forest Service for roughly 80% of our needs “provision.” Neiman continued.
The Black Hills primary forest, which covers 1.2 million acres of forestland in the region, is managed by the US Forest Service.
The sawmill has been in operation for the past 53 years. Neiman Enterprises bought the land from Continental Lumber in 1998 and renamed it Rushmore Forest Products.
After converting from dimensional lumber to boards, the mill produced 60 million board-feet of ponderosa pine boards and pattern boards.
“If we had the opportunity to buy timber to keep the mill running, we would have done so; keeping the Hill City location running would be in the best interests of the forest and our communities in the long run,” said Neiman Enterprises CEO.
Neiman also operates in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado, and recently acquired an Interfor mill in Gilchrist, Oregon.
