SEELEY LAKE — A law passed during the 2025 legislative session could provide $6 million in low-interest rate loans for an entity that wants to start up a wood products facility.

The measure could impact Seeley Lake, where Pyramid Mountain Lumber once operated.

“I think the likelihood of you know, somebody coming here, obviously, there'd be opportunity at other mills as well, but they really like the, the ability to source timber from this site,” said Pyramid Mountain Lumber owner Todd Johnson.

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Johnson says the new law would incentivize anyone looking to open a new facility by providing funding for one portion of the total for opening a new mill.

“I think the, the main designs behind it were so that it would allow somebody to secure a site. Six million dollars would go a long ways towards securing, you know, a site here in Montana,” said Johnson.

Pyramid Mountain Lumber closed in March 2024 for several reasons, mainly that the price of lumber had come to a point where his mill was no longer able to process the quantity needed to remain profitable, largely because the mill had a difficult time trying to find an adequate amount of labor.

But a new mill could solve that problem.

“A lot of the newer sawmills are very automated, very streamlined, where our facility, you know, it was 75 years old and grew from you know, in a center spot to you know, several different buildings. And then whenever you whenever you are spread out further, it takes more people, and the more streamlined you are, the more one person can do two or three things as well. So it just reduces, you know there's sawmills out there right now, they produced two to three times what we do with only maybe 25 people in the whole facility,” said Johnson.

Johnson also told MTN that the site where Pyramid Mountain Lumber sat could be enticing to a potential buyer, as the property already has power and water adequate for a saw mill.

In a statement to MTN, the law’s sponsor, Montana Representative John Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Anaconda, stated that, “It’s intended to be part of a capital stack. The developer might have that need to put together to come up with enough capital to reopen the facility.”

One factor that a new wood products facility would have to overcome is the lack of labor that exists in Seeley Lake.

Johnson told MTN, however, that some of those workers who have found other jobs since the mill closed may be interested in coming back to the mill if benefits were offered.

A new mill could also have facilities that increase the efficiency and decrease the amount of labor needed.