J. H. Baxter & Co. is an American wood products treatment company founded in 1896 and incorporated in 1915. [1] The company produces products such as railroad ties, and utility poles and crossarms. [2]
The company began as a lumber wholesaler in San Francisco in 1896. [3] After the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, Baxter began distributing timber to sawmills on the West Coast using its own sailing ships. [3] Later, it shipped wood using steamships. The company began producing preserved wood in 1915. [3] Among the chemicals used in the treatment process are creosote and pentachlorophenol (PCP). [4] Some of their products were branded Baxco.
Baxter's Eugene, Oregon plant is located in a mixed industrial/residential zone of the Bethel neighborhood. Baxter began treating wood at the plant in 1943. [5] In the 1980s, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality began investigating the plant's use of chemicals. [5] The plant was closed in 2022. [4]
The former J. H. Baxter plant in Weed, California is a Superfund cleanup site. [6] Wood preservation activities began at the plant in 1937. [7] The Weed plant was partially owned by Roseburg Forest Products. [7]
As of 2023, other locations included Alameda and San Mateo, California, and its TimberWood Products division in Brookline, New Hampshire. [8]
The company has been owned by four successive generations of the Baxter family. [9]
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