Welcome to this week’s Forest Business Network (FBN) newsletter. This time around, I’m excited to share a milestone that is incredibly close to my heart: my family’s business is officially celebrating 50 years in the forest products industry!
Looking back to January 1976, I had the privilege of co-founding Rawlings Construction Co. alongside my parents, Cliff and Pat, and my brother Mike. Those early days were full of hard work and big ambitions. When my father passed away in 1984, I took over as General Manager. During my 14 years with the company, I had the honor of helping consolidate our operations here in Missoula, Montana, and spearheading the commercialization of the patented rotary crusher—a design born out of my dad’s frustration with hammer mills plugging on cedar bark, log ends, and hardwood railroad ties, and which incredibly still remains the industry standard today.
I moved on to other ventures in 1989, and when my brother John Rawlings took over the company, it officially changed its name to Rawlings Manufacturing Inc (RMI).
While I haven’t been directly involved in the RMI business for a long time, I have always been one of their biggest cheerleaders. It has been a joy to continually support and promote them from the sidelines. Seeing John—who many of you know as the “Hog Doctor”—alongside his wife Judi Tyacke-Rawlings, who plays such an integral role in the company’s operations and leadership, and John’s son Cliff drive that forward-thinking legacy into the future makes this golden anniversary incredibly special.
To continue marking 50 years of manufacturing excellence, the Rawlings team is heading to Oregon this month.
From September 23–25, the entire RMI team will be at the Timber Processing & Energy Expo in Portland. Rawlings Manufacturing will be set up at Booth #327 at the Portland Expo Center, showcasing their latest engineering updates, including the new Vertical Rear Maintenance Wood Grinder. I highly encourage you to stop by the booth to catch up with the team, see their new equipment, and help them celebrate their big milestone!
I also have to give a quick shout-out to the International Mass Timber Conference & Expo (IMTC). Rawlings Manufacturing has been a fantastic exhibitor at IMTC in past years, and I’m really hoping they bring their team back for our 2027 event. They have recently run some incredibly successful tests on grinding large Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) off-cuts, reducing them to a 2-inch particle size in just seconds. It’s exactly the kind of innovation the mass timber sector needs as we scale up production and look for efficient ways to handle waste.
It’s been quite a ride over the last five decades. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey with our family.
Enjoy this week’s newsletter! ~ CCR
C. Craig Rawlings, President & CEO, FBN - Chairman, International Mass Timber Conference