The Old Johnson Brothers Millsite Cache
container is a bison tube with no writing instrument, so please be
sure to bring one.
This interesting historic site was discovered during a search
for the Tornado Pass trailhead. The road leading to the cache site
is easily passable for vehicles with good ground clearance.
Come out and enjoy exploring some of the neat backcountry roads
of this scenic area.
A Little Recent History on the Johnson Brothers
Company
From Crowsnest Highway Website
In the year 2006 Cowley is struggling. Just to the east of the
Village is the weathered ruin of the ancient Johnson Brothers’
sawmill is gone, leaving only an yawning concrete basement
foundation. Established in 1961 on a 55-acre lot, Johnson Bros.
sawed, planed and milled the Douglas fir, spruce and pines cut in
the Porcupine Hills and the valley of the Oldman until 1981. Four
years later local entrepreneurs organized Cowley Forest Products,
Limited, and began operations on a property located adjacent the
Johnson property to the east. It owned a kiln and could custom dry
lumber. The company eventually bought the name “Johnson Brothers”
for goodwill purposes. In November of 2002, however, thanks to the
embargo imposed upon softwood imports by the Americans in the
spring of that year, CFP/Johnson Bros. closed and in the February
following auctioned off its equipment. In the fall of 2006, this
process is pretty well complete and the buildings are beginning to
come down. With the mill’s demise, the Village lost its industrial
base and families began to leave.
Here are a few of the views from this
location.
