Tour of Trade Winds Lumber

We have been invited to tour a tropical wood facility, David has agreed to give our members a 20% discount that day on select items.

From the owner David Muelrath,

In the late 70’s I was living in a Log cabin I built in rural Northern California. I had studied wood tech in college, with interest in making stringed instruments, and wanted to travel. I dreamed up an idea of trying to import wood and distributed it to college wood labs.

While in college, I started to do some stringed instrument work. In some craft catalogues I had seen Honduras Rosewood and thought maybe this could be a good place to start. A bit of research indicated that the source of this wood was Belize. I had never heard of Belize, a small semi independent, mostly English speaking country just south of the Yucatán. I sent out a letter to the forestry dept there and, surprisingly they responded telling me they did indeed have Rosewood there. So I booked a flight and, after asking around, wound up in Punta Gorda in southern Belize where the rosewood suppliers were located. There was old Sam Vernon (80-100 years old) riding around in his Land Rover, Agusto Mack, a Hong Kong immigrant with a Chinese restaurant in town. And John Bright, from Oklahoma as I recall, that was knocking around trying to do some Rosewood business. An interesting cast of caricatures. I made the rounds and learned that all the production was already committed for the season.

I returned to the states and not long after was contacted by some guys in Texas that had a sizable tract of land north of Punta Gorda, and happened to have a few tons of rosewood logs they wanted to sell. We negotiated a deal and I found myself back in Punta Gorda on a rustic dock with some dug out canoes with out boards, and a crew of 15 to 20 guys ready to head out to Golden Stream 2-3 hours north. Golden stream was a slow moving river that started out winding through Mangrove swamps and then finally a little higher ground with overhanging tropical forest. We finally came to the landing and there was a sizable pile of rosewood logs about 50 yards back from the river. This was my first actual look at rosewood logs of any kind. I was told they had a bulldozer a short distance away and had some parts for it that would soon get it running and moving the logs. While we waited the crew cut some poles and started moving logs toward the river. It was a tough job. Weather was hot and muggy. The logs were long, missshapened and heavy. They used the poles to work the logs toward the shore. Someone spotted a coral snake under one of the logs. From some distance we heard a Diesel start and it was soon moving our way. This was a big relief, but then we heard odd sounds of the machine struggling, and soon learned that that big ol’ bulldozer was totally stuck in a bog and wasen’t going to move. Next we heard the sound of a tug pulling a barge up the stream to haule the logs to Belize city. There was a tough job ahead. I pitched in and we kept working the logs to the bank and then on to the barge. Then the tropical rain started to come down hard. We just kept working the logs. It got dark and we kept working the logs. Daylight came ad we were still working the logs onto the barge. Everyone was exhausted but finally the rain stoped and the logs were loaded. I decided to stick with my hard earned logs and go with the tug. The tranquil Golden stream was now in full food and the barge almost chased the tug, swinging into the riverbank around the hairpin turns. I saw a couple of logs slide into the water and dissapear.

Some time later our shipment was on the docks in Brookline NY and customs informed us the the logs were dirty and no foreign soil was allowed to be imported. This was years ago and they allowed us to bring a firehouse in and wash the dirt into the East River.

This was my introduction to the tropical wood Business.