1956 - Now
The start of Solt's
In 1956 Paul and Russell Solt took it upon themselves to open a sawmill and carpentry business and called it P&R Solt. Due to the unfortunate death of Paul's brother (Russell) on July 16th, 1989, he now had to run the sawmill on his own. Paul's son (Kerry) then started to work there and eventually became the owner of the business, he then changed the name to Solt's Sawmill. In the 90's Kerry made large improvements to the sawmill. The carpentry division then started to dwindle and was eventually closed. The pallet shop then grew and became a big part of the sawmill. Lee Solt (Bother of Paul and Russell) ran the pallet shop for many years. It became retirement time for Lee and Jeremy took over the pallet shop. Lee past away within a few years of his retirement. In 1990 Prudence (Kerry's daughter) was employed to do the book keeping. Currently Kerry owns Solt's Sawmill, Prudence is office manager and Jeremy runs the pallet shop. Solt's employs twenty full and part time employees.
The fire
On the evening of December 1st, 2009, Solt's Sawmill got devastating news that a fire had broke out in the pallet shop. As family members gathered feeling helpless, the community and the Topton fire company jumped into action. After many hours, many fire companies and the hard work of our volunteer firemen the fire was contained to just one building and was put out by day break. The next day our employees and the clean up crew got started so we could move forward. It took a few years and some hard work to get back to where we were. Today little scarring of the fire shows.
The passing of Paul
The founder of our company (Paul Solt) passed away on January 22nd at the age of 88. He meant a lot to all of us here at the sawmill and this business would not have been possible without him. He is and will always be dearly missed.