Gordon Angus MacGregor collection

Gordon Angus MacGregor began his career in south central Idaho's forests as a young logger, and with vision and innovations built a private family empire in logging, construction, mining, livestock, and land. MacGregor was born in 1915 in Minnesota. Logging was MacGregor's first love, an enthusiasm he inherited from his father, who brought his family from Minnesota to Cabarton in Valley County to work for the Boise Payette Lumber Company. As success followed success, MacGregor bought the site of then-abandoned Cabarton in 1940, and the surrounding land at later dates, and in 1985 he and his immediate family operated three integrated ranches in three counties, totaling 22,334 acres, under the name MacGregor Land and Livestock Company. MacGregor's business and holdings changed over the years, but land, livestock, and timber remained the core of his operations. The land, and accompanying livestock, was an integral part of the MacGregor Companies, which included the Pressure Treated Timber Company of Boise.

After working for Boise Payette for ten years, MacGregor began his own logging operations in 1944 as the MacGregor Logging Company. He soon became recognized as one of the largest independent loggers in the Pacific Northwest. He logged as much as seventy million board feet of timber a year. The logging company gradually branched into road construction and earth moving, and in 1951 MacGregor purchased the Triangle Construction Company, head-quartered in Boise, and renamed it MacGregor Triangle Company. In 1956 a new headquarters building was constructed on Gekeler Lane off Federal Way in Boise. In the 1950s the company engaged in logging, ore hauling out of Stibnite to Cascade, construction, open pit mining, livestock operations, and land development Two other construction companies were purchased and by 1960 MacGregor began closing out its logging division and concentrated on construction for public agencies and private companies in seven western states.

MacGregor kept his hand in the timber industry by founding the Pressure Treated Timber Company in 1960, which treated forest products with preservatives by means of pressure. From its computerized plant at 3200 Gowen Road in Boise, Pressure Treated Timber also produced precision-cut log buildings.

In April 1981 MacGregor sold MacGregor Triangle Company but continued to serve as chief executive officer of the ranching and wood-products companies. His daughter, Dr. Carol MacGregor, served as corporate secretary of both the Pressure Treated Timber Company and the MacGregor Land and Livestock Company. His son, Jock, was operating manager and vice-president of the ranching operations. Its board of directors consisted of MacGregor and his wife, Nell, and their three children, Carol, Jock, and David MacGregor. MacGregor died in 1987.

Adapted from "Idaho, Gem of the Mountains," by Merle W. Wells and Arthur A. Hart, Northridge, Calif., Windsor Publications, 1985.