Attracted by the gold rush in Alaska, George Ridgway Kirk, known as G.R., left his home in Pennsylvania for Seattle in 1898, and almost immediately sailed north to make his fortune. Misfortune met him instead. G.R. found miners digging holes for the victims of an epidemic rather than gold that had lured him there.

G.R. returned to Pennsylvania and then spent a few years in North Carolina to learn the lumber business. He was back in the northwest by 1902 and ran a successful planning mill. In 1918 a brother-in-law in El Paso, Texas, called G.R. to tell him “that a florist down here wants a carload of Christmas trees.”

A stupid idea, thought G.R., as he told his foreman to cut this Texan a carload of wild Douglas Fir trees. The next year came along with orders for two more carloads. That got G.R.’s attention. He immediately cut three carloads for himself and headed for Los Angeles where he set up shop at the 8th and Alameda railroad tracks. He sold all of his trees and each year thereafter came back with a few more carloads. Large annual increases followed.

By 1928, the Kirk Company was producing twenty to twenty five carloads, each of which carried about a thousand trees. That year brought an end to the prosperity of the twenties. The stock market crash in October of 1929 marked the beginning of the longest and worst economic depression in American history.

The depression made it difficult to make ends meet. Through ingenuity and extra effort, G.R. Kirk met the challenge and set the stage for future growth. In 1931 G.R.’s son Paul returned home and agreed to work for his father but only on a temporary basis. A few years later, Paul built a fifteen –foot house trailer from scratch. The next ten years, Paul and his wife Dorothy spent much of their time in this and two other trailers traveling throughout the United States and Canada. They not only expanded the market for Kirk trees but made hundreds of friends during their visits. During this time, Paul and Dorothy became the proud parents of three children, Paul R. “Rick” Kirk, Morris L. “Mac” Kirk and Ann Kirk.

In 1936 during his travels in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, Paul found a large supply of Spruce and Balsam Firs for the huge Northeastern market. He moved quickly and set up 50 centers in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec to which farmers brought wild trees to be graded and tied. During one year the Kirk Company reached a peak of 400 carloads.

In 1950 Paul Kirk decided to produce Scotch pine trees in Canada east of Toronto and in a few years nearly a thousand acres were planted. Many of these trees were sheared which involves cutting back the soft new foliar growth to give them a better shape. If you could shear Scotch pine trees, thought Paul Kirk, why not shear Douglas fir and other wild trees! He didn’t want competitors to know, so he began by shearing ten acres in secret. Eventually the Kirks sheared two thousand acres of wild trees in Canada and Washington, but it was difficult to maintain good quality.

The Kirks began to see that naturally reseeded wild trees, even when fertilized and sheared, did not provide the best solution for supplying Christmas trees.

The Kirks expanded sales that in turn required more trees. Most were delivered to small grocery stores on consignment. Gradually chain stores began to take greater numbers of Kirk trees.

Until the early forties, most Christmas trees were cut from naturally reseeded forests or abandoned farms and pastures and then transported by rail and water to the market. By the mid forties the transition to plantation grown or farm raised trees had caught on and most trees were being harvested from farms. The advantage of plantations over the forests is that cultivation, fertilization, shearing, and cutting can be done more economically. It is easier to maintain high quality, which is so important in large volume production.

In 1953, the Kirks began to buy deserted farms in flat lands near Wautoma, Wisconsin. Spanning more than ten thousand acres, the Wautoma Plantation was once the largest of all the Kirk operations

In 1956, G.R. and Paul Kirk were featured on the cover of Business Week magazine and given special recognition for their achievements. They had built one of the largest Christmas tree companies in the world, harvesting and marketing trees all across the continent, and abroad. Father and son had played complementary yet different roles in bringing it all about. G.R. remained in the corporate offices in Tacoma, Washington giving administrative support to son Paul who couldn’t sit still. Paul was always at the front lines developing new markets, finding new forests and trees, and improving operations. His dynamic personality and drive created a rate of company grown that constantly challenged G.R.’s administrative skills.

During the following years, the Kirk Company made its mark on the Christmas tree industry with innovative production techniques and high growing standards.

The Kirk Company also introduced a number of support products to augment their Christmas tree line. Affordable balers and netting to bale Christmas trees, tree colorants, nutrients and disposal bags were all products introduced by the Kirk Company.

When Paul Kirk retired; Paul R. “Rick” Kirk, Morris L. “Mac” Kirk and Ann Kirk Davis became the third generation of Kirk’s to run The Kirk Company. During this time, the Kirk Company ran successful operations in Oregon, Wisconsin and Nova Scotia. Under Rick’s leadership, the Kirk Company expanded its presence internationally. The Kirk Company sold trees to Puerto Rico, Guam, Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean.

In 1995, Ann Kirk Davis made the decision to leave the Kirk Company in order to pursue other personal, political and philanthropic opportunities.

On August 14, 2004 Paul Kirk received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Christmas Tree Association.

Three generations of the Kirk family ran the G. R. Kirk Company for 89 years. In 2007, Rick and Mac Kirk made the difficult decision to retire from the Christmas tree end of their business. Keeping the Christmas tree tradition alive has now been handed over to Ralph Nilssen and Gary Snyder. Ralph Nilssen joined the Kirk Company in 1984 and until the purchase, served as Vice President of Sales. Gary Snyder joined the Kirk Company in 1980 and until the purchase served as the Oregon production yard manager.

“This is a great chance for the two of us to take life a little slower, while concentrating more effort on our real estate holdings” Mac Kirk said. “It also gives two well deserving former employees a tremendous opportunity to expand and grow a successful company which has always been a leader in the Christmas tree industry.”

In 2007, The Kirk Company boldly led the industry by introducing a full line of bio-degradable plastic products. Bio-Netting™ and Bio-bags™ replaced less environmentally friendly products in the Kirk line. The Kirk Company also introduced Noble Fir boughs to its product line.

In 2007, the Kirk Company expanded its international presence into the Pacific islands and Asia.

Ralph and Gary, along with many other veteran employees have taken over the duty of ensuring that The Kirk Company continues to be an innovative and customer driven company well into the future.