I arrive at Wilkins Lumber at sundown on a Wednesday afternoon. The first thing I see are stacks upon stacks of various sizes of logs throughout the property. On the right of a flat area their inventory is stacked, and then in a large shed on the left stands a 1927 American Saw Mill Machinery Co. Model No. 1 that has been passed down to four generations of sawyers in the Wilkins family. This is where Aubrey Wilkens' story of hard work begins.
Aubrey was born and raised in Maryland. She and Gregg met through mutual friends and realized they had a lot in common. They both love camping, hunting, and rafting. They ended up becoming boyfriend and girlfriend in April of 2010 and got married April 6, 2019. Both Gregg and Aubrey have children from previous relationships and they share a son together.
In the summer of 2012, Aubrey and Gregg decided to re-establish Greggs grandparents sawmill on their land in Salida, Colorado. Because of growing demand, in August of 2018, they made their first purchase of equipment for a more modern mill. “It took three semi trucks to get the mill out here,” Aubrey says. Once all of the parts were in Salida, they began building. This was hard for them because they were trying to cut wood, help customers, and build their new sawmill all at once. In July of 2019 they shut down so they could put all their focus on building the new sawmill. On February 8, 2020 they sawed their first log on the new sawmill.
In March of 2020 the COVID pandemic hit. Businesses started to shut down causing people to lose their jobs and you had to wear a mask everywhere except outside and in your house. Although it was a bad thing for most businesses, it had the adverse effect for Wilkins Lumber. They became more popular. They had people coming in wanted woods for projects they are doing at home since they couldn’t work. They never had to shut down because all the work they needed to do was outside. Eventually Gregg and Aubrey needed people to help them but no one wanted to. They couldn’t find people who wanted to put in the physical work of having to lift or roll logs, or carry the boards all around the mill. It’s been Aubrey and her husband Gregg since July of 2019.
Doing all the work themselves was very challenging because they had many jobs they had to do when milling the logs such as, collecting and dumping the saw dust, grabbing more logs to cut, moving the boards around, cutting down the knots in the wood and putting the boards into the inventory. Since they had to do all these different things themselves, Gregg often had to stop milling the wood to take care of other responsibilities.
When asked about what their struggles have taught her, Aubrey states, “I have learned a lot about being in business for myself, being in this industry and how to manage everything and rise above during hard/slow times.” She also said, “I learned a lot about how to plan ahead for slow days and invest in machinery to make the days ahead easier.” The sawmill now in 2023 is a really popular business. Aubrey and Gregg now have a good rotation between them and the work that needs to be done. They also have an organized inventory full of the different wood and sizes and have built the clientele completely through word of mouth who continue to support them and share their experiences with others. Seeing first hand how hard she works, I have no doubt that they will keep being successful in years to come.