Pieces of history

CAREYWOOD, Idaho – Three years ago, Dave Pemberton and his wife, Robin, remodeled an old farm house in North Idaho. When they installed pine floors milled from logs recovered from the bottom of Lake Pend Oreille, Pemberton was enchanted by the wood’s patina.

Lake sediments had seeped slowly into the timbers over the years, creating subtle shadings of red, green and even purple. “It has a rainbow of colors,” he said.

The logs were pulled from the lake by Don Cox of Sandpoint. They came with a one-page informational sheet, but Pemberton wanted to know more about the colorful era that produced the logs. What were working conditions like for the lumberjacks who cut the trees nearly a century ago? Or the “river pigs” — the slang name for the crews that drove the logs down the rivers to waterfront mills? How much did the dangerous work pay?

Pemberton’s fascination became the impetus for Story Woods. He makes handcrafted furniture and flooring out of wood reclaimed from old buildings, or recovered from lake and river bottoms. Each piece comes with a narrative and historic photos.

Pemberton crafts one item of furniture at a time, completing just a handful of projects each year. He prefers the unhurried pace.

“I’m not interested in creating this whole, large business that I have to run,” he said.

Story Woods is a side venture, tangential to his work as a custom home-builder. In the furniture arena, Pemberton’s forte is design. He works with local craftsmen to execute the details, and digs up history at museums.

In North Idaho, lumberjacks called their cross-cut saws “misery whips,” Pemberton learned. Life was primitive in logging camps, with work consuming 10 to 15 hours of each day.

River pigs earned $6 a day during log drives — a wage attractive enough to induce workers to risk life and limb amidst snarls of roiling logs.

Story Woods` projects have included a maple door made of lumber recycled from a Wisconsin brewery, and a dining room table made from old-growth hemlock pulled off the bottom of the Columbia River. Through the Internet, Pemberton taps into numerous sources of reclaimed wood. His furniture starts at about $500, with most pieces costing several thousand dollars.

The $3,000 hemlock table was built for clients who have a cabin overlooking the Pend Oreille River. Blue-and-gray shadings in the wood’s grain mimic the flow of the river, which is visible from the cabin’s windows.

“It looks like the water in the river, and it’s perfect,” said Darcy Fugman-Small, who owns the cabin with her husband, Rick. “We love wood and we love history. It was a neat combination.”

The Smalls found Pemberton through Amber Leaf Design in Sandpoint. They wanted a contemporary design for a table seating 10. Pemberton, who gets referrals from the interior designer, sketched a table with a steel frame topped by wood planks. The Smalls looked at six samples of wood, and chose the hemlock. They operate a winery in the Columbia basin, and they liked the tie to the Columbia River.

Many of Amber Leaf’s clients own second homes in North Idaho. They’re looking for one-of-a-kind furnishings that reflect the area’s culture, said owner Michelle Blemel.

“They get a kick out of knowing that it was personally theirs — that it wouldn’t be redesigned for someone else,” Blemel said. “And a lot of people like that it’s reclaimed wood, because it’s environmentally friendly.”