As we explore Lassen’s lumber industry’s past, there are references to the volume of a million board feet (mbf). During the 1920s, the lumber mills of Lassen County had an average annual output of 250 million board feet of lumber.
George Cone, who worked in the Lumber Division of Fruit Growers provided this definition using that mill’s output for the 1922 season at 62 million board feet. If it was placed on a single freight train, that train would extend eighteen miles. And since it took 6,000 board feet of lumber to build an ordinary house in those days, Cone figured that the 1922 output could build 60,000 houses. According to Cone, with an average household consisting of five persons, this production could provide the housing needs of 300,000 people!