William B. Ogden, first mayor of Chicago, owned the Peshtigo Company at the time of the fire. The plant consisted of a sawmill, a woodenware factory, a sash and blind factory and loggers in the woods, employing 800 persons. 

Wood has been used for fuel, for housing, for transportation, and countless other end products. Today, the market for structural glued laminated timber is in buildings, bridges, sound barriers, and a myriad of other uses. While wood still serves as fuel, there are far more important uses in structural applications. 

The first structural glued laminated timber members in America are roof supports in the Peshtigo High School gymnasium, built in 1934. The base facilities of Sentinel Structures, Inc. are those used by the 1934 company to fabricate those first glued laminated timber arches. 
Markets for structural glued laminated timber have expanded dramatically during the past 64 years. Board footage in excess of 300 million is laminated each year by the industry into columns, straight beams, pitched and curved beams, curved arches, and parallel, pitched, and curved trusses. These wood members normally use untreated wood but use pressure preservative-treated wood when fully exposed to the weather without roof cover. There are places where untreated wood is used under roof cover, but in such enclosed areas having excessively high humidities for extended periods of time, proper ventilation is then required to control humidity and the wood moisture content. 

STRUCTURAL GLUED LAMINATED TIMBER 

BRIDGES    CHURCHES    GYMNASIUMS    SWIMMING POOLS    RESIDENCES   
SHIP MASTS, TRANSMISSION OR ANTENNA TOWER    COVERED BRIDGES   
CONSIDERATIONS IN DESIGN WITH STRUCTURAL GLUED LAMINATED TIMBER