At the onset of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Pacific Northwest lumber industry launched various campaigns to educate the public about the many benefits of timber. Recently, readers many recall the Forestry Essay Contests in the schools.
In the late 1930s, witnessed the organized wooden box campaigns. In 1938, according to the Wooden Box Institute over 50,000 employees of the lumber industry representing an annual payroll of $50 million were participating in the movement. It should be duly noted, that in this era, one of the major components of a sawmill was the box factory division. The manufacture of box shook to make wooden boxes accounted for nearly half the lumber produced in the 1930s. This was an important factor to the local mills of Fruit Growers and Lassen Lumber & Box which their employees joined the movement. On February 1, 1938 the Susanville Wooden Box Promotion Association was formed.