In 1941, this company was created by a partnership between J.S. “Sam” Dotson, William Barbee and Sherman Rea. They initially acted as logging contractors, their biggest client was Lassen Lumber & Box Company. While Lassen Lumber & Box was in decline, Susanville Logging saw there was still opportunities in the milling business. In January 1947, they began construction of a sawmill east of Susanville, the property known today as Lassen Ale Work’s The Boardroom on Johnstonville Road. The mill was completed in April 1947 and had a daily capacity of 40,000 board feet. In July 1947, the company proposed to build a truck bypass from Eagle Lake Road, down the stock trail to the end of Roop Street. They asked the City and County to secure the right-of-ways and they would do the rest. Nothing happened.
In 1954, Dotson died and Barbee & Rea carried on. They sold out in 1958, and the operation was renamed the Susanville Lumber Company. It would undergo numerous ownerships, the last one Jeld-Wen, who closed the mill in the spring of 1993.