NORTH POWDER – Rich and Lori Daniels are

proud of the park model recreational vehicles they manufacture on the

former site of the Idaho Timber Company mill here.

Rich’s Portable Cabins, as they are called, are roomy, homey, fully equipped and attractive. But they’re more than that.

They’re a product designed and manufactured in North Powder, and

marketed to the world. They represent business and industry in a little

Union County town that hasn’t had much lately.

“When things are really busy, we employ up to 10

people, and we’re offering some benefits now,” Lori Daniels said during

a recent tour of the business.

Some 10 years ago, Rich Daniels worked as a timber cruiser. He

liked spending his time outdoors, but, with the ailing regional timber

industry, he wondered whether he’d have a job long-term.

He bought 75 timbered acres near Anthony Lakes in Baker

County, set up a portable sawmill and went into the lumber business. An

avid carpenter, he also built a house on the property.

About this time, he happened to hear of a woman who was in need

of a storage shed and offered to build one for her. Soon, he was

building sheds more or less regularly. He named his business “Rich’s

Sheds.”

He felt a need to branch out. He built playhouses, too, including one that was offered as a prize in a “Women In Timber” raffle.

That structure appeared in a parade in La Grande. The exposure

led to an order for a mobile tourist information booth for Union County

.

Using half-logs for siding, Daniels designed the booth as a

“cabin on wheels.” That led to further experiments and the building of

bigger, better, portable cabins.

He found through research that the structures he built fit the

legal criteria for park model recreational vehicles, which are often

set up in RV parks, left where they are and rented by the day, week or

month.

“They’re just like a house, fully equipped with, kitchens,

baths and bedrooms, only they’re classified as an RV because they’re

under 400 square feet.” Lori said, adding that zoning laws governing

full-time living in the cabins vary from place to place.

Rich and Lori discovered a ready market for such a product.

Since selling their first one some seven years ago, they’ve built and

sold about 65 more to customers in Oregon, Washington, Montana, Alaska,

California and other places.

“We don’t depend on the local economy,” Rich said. “We do most

of our marketing through the Internet, and we get inquiries from all

over the world. If it wasn’t for the Internet, we probably wouldn’t be

in business.”

As a business location, the Daniels’ Anthony Lakes property was

not the best. Getting the cabins down the steep roads to Interstate 84

posed a real challenge.

With the operation growing, Rich and Lori decided a new

location was in order. But finding a suitable one turned out to be more

difficult than they thought it would be.

The couple considered spots in La Grande and Baker City, but

ruled them out. One problem was a lack of a suitable buildings to go

along with the property.

Another, according to Lori, was indifference on the part of local economic development entities.

“We kept reading in the papers how companies are courted and

wooed, but that wasn’t the case for us. We had to do all the footwork.

We weren’t taken seriously,” she said.

There were a couple of things they liked about North Powder.

First, it had the freeway frontage the business needs, and second,

North Powder is only a few miles away from their Anthony Lakes home.

“It’s better than having to drive to La Grande or Baker City

every day,” Rich said. “Another good thing is that our daughter,

Harmony, is a student at the high school.”

It took some patience, but about a year ago, the Danielses

closed the deal on the 25-acre former mill site. The property included

a building they could use for their operation until they could put up

something better.

Work on a brand-new, 12,000-square-foot steel building was

completed this fall and now the cabins – and the steel frames they roll

on – are being built there.

“Having everything under one roof is really nice,” Rich said.

Both Rich and Lori said they hope the presence of Rich’s

Portable Cabins will stimulate more economic development in North

Powder.

They say it would be nice to have some neighbors. They don’t

rule out the possibility of a North Powder business or industrial park

on their land.

“The old building we were in is for lease, and we don’t need all the 25 acres we have,” Rich said. “There’s space available.”