It all started in Eric Almquist's garage over forty years ago. Eric would go to the big city to buy hardwoods for the local woodworkers who were looking for better stuff than they could find in town. After a couple of years he moved the business out of his garage and into the little town of Blue Lake, California (where there is no lake at all), and stayed there for over twenty years. 

When Eric found a great old mill site on the banks of the Mad River closer to the big metropolis of Arcata, California (pop 15,000), he bought it and built a great big new home for the business. We moved in over Memorial Day Weekend in 2006. Have you ever moved from a place you've lived for 20 years? It was no fun at all. That old place had stuff tucked into every corner. Now that we have over 50,000 square feet of new space, we can't imagine how we fit in the old place. 

When you call up Almquist Lumber, you can speak with people who know their stuff. Most everyone here's a wood butcher or better (except the bookkeeper). Our staff has a lot of grey hair (or no hair at all) and a lot of knowledge under that grey hair. Even the newbies can tell most folks a thing or two about wood, metal roofing, hardwood flooring, finishes, tools and hardware. So feel free to call us up - no one's shy here, we'll tell you if we are too busy to chat! We even let our customers bring their dogs into the store!

Find out what our customers have been saying about us. We even printed these testimonials in the local paper, so you know that they're true!

If you happen to be out our way visiting the redwoods and our wild beaches, stop by! Get a cup of coffee, and prepare to spend the afternoon checking out our huge selection. Our store location page will help guide you to us.