05/24/2023
Where's Waldo V6
Guy Longhini
When I think of "big leaguers" in the industry, there's a good list of people that would come to mind, but Guy Longhini would be one of the first that does. Many years of hard work and dedication to the industry make him very deserving of the accolades.
Guy was born and raised in West Allis, Wisconsin. His mother was from the U.P. of Michigan, growing up on the shores of Lake Superior, in Ontonagon. They'd come up every summer to visit for a couple weeks, eventually moving there when he was 16 years old, and a sophomore in high school. He spent the last two years of high school as a "Gladiator", graduating from Ontonagon High. He started as an apprentice electrician with a local company, Norwich Electric. This job lasted 2 years before he set his sights on his journeyman card, and started doing school from home to attain it. It was a little more complicated than the online schooling system we'd use today. You would order the books, and send in packets of your work and tests to get graded. After trying this for a bit, he decided to just attend Michigan State University's two year program, finishing it 18 months later, and finally getting his journeyman's card. He immediately got hired on as an electrician in Waukesha WI.
In 1982, Guy married his longtime friend and schoolmate, Andrea Penegor. Andrea's family ran a sawmill and logging company back in Twin Lakes, MI (about 30 miles north of Ontonagon), that her Grandpa Almor Penegor had started back in the mid 40's, and was run at this time by his father-in-law William (Billy) Penegor. After about a year of electrical work in Waukesha, Guy's in-laws made him an offer to move back to the U.P., to haul bark and woodchips that were piling up behind the mill. They had made a deal with a mill in Tomahawk WI to purchase the bark and sawdust, and needed a full time truck to get it there. The Longhini's packed up and headed north. Guy spent one day riding in a semi truck, another two days driving it, and then took the test, passing it, to get his CDL. He jumped into the company owned truck and started hauling 7 loads a week to the Tomahawk mill. It was about 260 mile round trip run, and he "doubled up" a couple times a week, running 520 miles in one day. He did this consistently for 2 years, before jumping into their 1979 Paystar 5000 log truck, to help haul the sawlogs and Veneer from the logging jobs to the mill. He stayed trucking over the next several years, driving different trucks and different setups, including a 1979 International (first truck with a pup), the "orange blossom special", which was a early 80's Peterbilt with a screaming Detroit Diesel motor, and the first new log truck to the company, a 1988 Western Star 5 axle truck, powered by a Caterpillar 425, and pulled a 5 axle trailer built in the nearby town of Alston.
In 1990, Guy phased from the trucking side of the company into the logging side, supervising jobs and helping out wherever he was needed. By this time, William Penegor had stepped back after suffering his second heart attack, and Guy started picking up more responsibility, along with his brother-in-law Almor, with Lawrence Coffey doing most of the office work. They stayed plenty busy with the mill running full time, and crews cutting on the almost 5000 acres of family owned land. Unfortunately, on New Years day in 1992, there was a major fire at the mill and it ended up being a total loss. This was the second fire that destroyed the mill, the first one being in the early 70's before Guy was around. After the first fire, the Penegor's ended up buying a local mill, a few miles up the road, to keep sawing lumber while they rebuilt their own. With this second fire, this wasn't an option. They spent the majority of the next year traveling around to auction's and buying mill equipment, while crews back home rebuilt the mill. During this time in 1992, Guy entered into a competition, started by a Swedish training instructor Soren Eriksson, called "The game of logging". Basically, it was a contest focused on tree felling, sharpening, and speed cutting skills (I'll attach a news article from this time, going into to further detail on the event, very interesting read). Guy ended up winning the state of Michigan against some very tough competitors, collected his winnings of $1000 and some new gear, and headed down to Nelsonville Ohio for the nationals event, with his wife and his parents. The nationals didn't go as well as the state competition, but still came back with plenty to be proud of, and plenty of bragging rights!
By 1993, the mill was back up and running. At this time, they also took on the role of being the only company to cut Vulcan owned land, in addition to their own. Vulcan had their own crews mark the timber, but other than that, the management side was all up to Guy. He did the road building, along with marking their own land sales. You could also find him running equipment on the job, hand cutting trees, bucking on the landing, or anything else that needed to be done. Including jumping into their "Plum Crazy" purple Western Star log truck, and heading down to the Capitol of Michigan, Lansing, for a good cause supporting the trucking industry at a rally there.
Guy was at home on December 28, 2017, when he got a call that the mill in Twin Lakes was on fire again. It was another total loss. With Almor and Guy being close to retirement age, and no family in line interested in taking the reins, with heavy hearts, they decided to close the book on the mill. They would still keep the logging operations going and sell the logs and veneer to other mills. They continue this today, keeping 3 full time loader truck, and a couple day cab trucks pulling lowboy or crib trailers busy. Guy keeps the operations rolling smoothly, with help from a good crews and operators pumping out an average of 110 cords per day. All of this, still cutting with a "tree length" operation, meaning a buncher cutting the tree, sawyers bucking the branches and tops, skidders pulling the full tree into a slasher on the landing, who will then cut it into the desired length, and pile it up for the trucks. There's not many companies that still run this way, and even fewer that are able to average 110 cords per day doing it. It takes good crews, and good management to run this many years at the volume they put out. It took a 5 inch spring loaded tree to slow Guy down for a bit on November 11, 2022. It was the last day before the guys were all going to take off a couple weeks for deer hunting, and he was out trimming some branches out of a job road. He was watching the stump for movement, when the tree snapped towards him and shattered the bone below his knee. He had a nearby employee drive him back into town. They put a brace on it, and scheduled surgery for a week later. He still was out plowing and doing anything he was physically able to, before the surgery that left him with a plate and 7 screw holding everything together. He was on the couch for a couple weeks, but as soon as he was able to get into the truck with a little help from his wife, he was back on the logging jobs.
As many years and logging jobs that Guy has been running an impressively successful operation on, you could ask him about any one of them and he would be able to pull out the numbers and records of the wood that was cut. He still runs a saw just about everyday, still builds most of the roads, along with the occasional trucking, and most of the plowing and road grading in the winter. He's also been on the Great Lakes Timber Producers Association (GLTPA) Rhinelander board of directors for over 20 years. There's not one part of the entire operation that he isn't an important part of, and deservingly has all the respect from the guys. I feel sorry for the guy, whomever may have to fill those shoes someday. He'd better be eating his Wheaties! Guy still resides in Twin Lakes MI, with his wife Andrea. I know how busy you are, thanks for the time Guy!
