NOBLE MOUNTAIN - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Retired Partner of Holiday Tree Farms
Crown Zellerbach was the first large corporation to enter the Northwest Christmas Tree market. However, as a result of early mass plantings, Crown had an enormous amount of trees that were going to become marketable all at once.
Crown had hired Paul Goodmonson, a recently retired partner of Holiday Tree Farms in Corvallis, Oregon as a consultant. Due to the fact that Crown had not developed a market for the trees, they were advised to sell the entire farm. At that time, their farm consisted of 1,117 acres with over one million noble firs coming to market over the next two-year period.
When my husband, Bob Stohr, and I got the call about the pending sale, we were definitely interested. However, we knew that our company, Douglas Fir Christmas Tree Company, and we could not handle such a large purchase alone. But Bob didn't give up and he decided to put together a group of potential buyers. He turned to three skilled Christmas Tree men to join him in the purchase.
His first agenda was to convince Paul Goodmonson that he was too young to retire and still very much needed in the industry. Paul had previously served as the President of the Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association, as had Bob. Paul later served as the President of the National Christmas Tree Association. Bob also served as a trustee for the National from the Pacific Northwest.