Red River Lumber Company’s California expansion was a very costly endeavor. While its founderT.B. Walker had amassed a great fortune, like many successful businessmen, he was constantly investing his profits in new enterprises, some good and others not. To purchase the California timberland conservative estimates place the cost at $3.7 million. However, not all of this came out of Walker’s pocket. To finance his cause, he enlisted the aid of a New York investor, Doctor John E. Andrus. Together, the two men formed the Waland Lumber Company—its name a derivative combining the names of Walker and Andrus. When Red River made the final decision to build its first California mill at Mountain Meadows, the Waland property was used as a collateral for bond issuance.
The initial cost to build Westwood was $3,528,300, nearly equal
as to what was spent on timberland acquisition. This only covered the costs incurred in 1913 and 1914, and the town and mill plant were far from being complete.
In 1913, Red River sold two million dollars in bonds to help pay for Westwood. The bonds were secured with a mortgage on 90,000 acres of Waland timber in Tehama and Shasta counties and experts placed a value on that timber at $6,100,000. The first payment of $50,000 was due on January 1,1916. The bonds had a life span of fifteen-years, but in 1928 a balloon payment of $950,000 was due! That obligation that would not be met, that was one of the dominoes of the downfall of Red River.