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