Lebanon #27: Weldwood & Lebanite Plants

3213 South Santiam Highway

Weldwood & Lebanite Plants on October 21, 2006

In 1940, the Evans Plywood mill opened just north of Cheadle Lake. By the early 1950s, the plant was owned by Cascade Plywood. The plant made a brand of plywood called Weldwood. In 1952, Cascade Plywood opened a new hardboard plant on the site and began producing a composite board called Lebanite, which was named after the town. Both facilities were purchased by U.S. Plywood in 1962, which became part of Champion International in 1967. The plywood plant closed in 1985. The Lebanite hardboard plant was sold to Georgia-Pacific in 1987. The plant was sold to RE Services in January 2000 and renamed Lebanite Corporation. The plant shut down on August 1, 2003. It reopened on November 6, 2003 as Oregon Panel Products, LLC, but shut down again, this time permanently, in April 2004.

A Lebanon city park opened in 1966 was named Weldwood Park after the plywood product. The park was renamed Bob Smith Memorial Park in 2005 after a former Lebanon mayor who served for 16 years in the 1980s & 1990s and had helped acquire the land for the park in 1966.

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