Our Story
Goosebay Sawmill & Lumber, Inc. is a family owned and operated New Hampshire corporation that has been in business over 35 years. We supply cabinetmakers, contractors, artisans, part-time woodworkers and hobbyists.
In 1978, Carl Mahlstedt acquired the property that became Goosebay Sawmill and Lumber. In researching home-based businesses to take advantage of the location, he explored several options (organic farming, greenhouses, sawmills). The final decision was made when he purchased a disassembled sawmill lying in a farmer’s field in Loudon NH.
Carl hauled his purchase home in several trips in his pickup truck and assembled it here. Although he had never run a sawmill, he started as a production mill sawing trailer-loads of softwood.
Carl traveled to Goosebay Labrador while in the merchant marine. He felt an affinity for the place and the name (a sentiment not often shared by those who have been there) and decided to name his new business Goosebay Sawmill.
Although we still saw hemlock and pine for retail orders, we now saw more specialty lumbers. We saw a variety of locally harvested species as live edge: Cherry, Walnut, Curly Maple, Maple, Butternut and any interesting logs that come into the yard. The slabs are left to air dry and then are completely dried in our kilns.
We also saw Bird’s Eye and Curly Maple into dimensional lumber. Bird’s Eye logs are much less plentiful than curly logs. We always have 4/4 lumber on hand. When suitable logs are available we saw thicknesses up to 12/4 or 16/4 and dry it in our kilns.
We built the current retail barn in 1998, greatly increasing our inventory and selection of both domestic and imported (exotic) hardwoods. We additionally added our plywood bins and offer cabinet grade veneered plywood as well as marine plywood.
Our current sawmill is our 4th. We’ve switched from a rotary saw to a band saw . We are currently working on converting our mill from diesel to electric power.
