Distinctly Montana Magazine

Sustain DEPARTMENT MONTANA GHOST WOOD BY VALERIE HARMS T he Ghost Wood team's mission statement is "To insure Ghost Wood is as green and eco-friendly as re- claimed wood by utilizing dead standing timber, preserving our Ghost Towns, restoring water sheds and stream restoration projects, and recycling all by- products." Toward this end the folks at Bit- terroot Valley Forest Products of Missoula spent $150,000 develop- ing a wood product that looks and feels like old barns, whether gray, brown, red, or blackened. It costs about half the price as recycled lumber and is far less wasteful. Thirty-seventy percent of reclaimed wood ends up being un-usable due to rot, splits, and defects. And the Ghost Wood product prevents ghost towns and other abandoned structures from being ravaged. According to Mike Thompson of Bozeman's Kenyon Noble, "There's a ton of interest in it." The idea of coming up with a new product started two years ago. The company originally wanted to develop a product using new wood to make it look old or to make it resemble re- claimed barn wood. Since the employ- ees at Bitterroot Valley Forest Products are native Montanans, they were familiar with the ghost towns and old barns, ranging in shades from brown, rust, black, grey, to silver. Jim Edinger, owner, decided to name their new product "Montana Ghost Wood." MONTANA GHOST WOOD PRODUCTS BANNACK BROWN is the original color, named after the old structures in Ban- nack State Park. Most of these build- ings have the original wood with a beautiful brown patina. SILVER CITY is the second color that Ghost Wood produced. The idea was to replicate the silver-gray look of www.distinctlymontana.com 63 INVENTED BY BITTERROOT VALLEY FOREST PRODUCTS

• Cover