KAMIAH - "The mill is doomed."

Those were the words of timber grower Huntington Hatch of Kamiah as the last chance to salvage Three Rivers Timber Inc., slipped away, with no one willing to offer the minimum $1.5 million selling price.

Three Rivers went on the auction block Thursday afternoon in a last-ditch effort to sell the real estate and equipment as a single unit. The mill closed in November 2008, after its owners, William E. and Shirley Mulligan, defaulted on millions of dollars in loans from Wells Fargo Bank. More than 100 people lost their jobs in the closure.

The next month a receiver, Inverness Group Inc., of Portland, Ore., was appointed to administer the mill's assets. Last July, Inverness tried to sell the mill, but when no one offered the minimum $6 million asking price, the sale was put on hold.

Thursday's auction began with auctioneer Tim Murphy of James G. Murphy Inc., a Portland auctioneering company, asking for a $1.5 million offer.

No one spoke up, so Murphy and others sequestered themselves in a private office for several minutes, and then re-emerged.

"I'm going to lose my job as an auctioneer if I don't get this going," Murphy joked before starting the bid once again at $500,000. This time, Gene L. Dandliker, owner of Jem Machine Inc. in Grangeville, put up his hand.

Hatch followed with a bid for $600,000. The two men jockeyed back and forth, with the price climbing higher in $100,000 increments until Hatch's bid of $900,000.

Murphy looked to Dandliker for another bump. Dandliker shook his head.

"Sell it," he said.

Murphy readjusted his strategy and asked Dandliker if he would go another $50,000.

There was head-wagging and time-outs, with both Dandliker and Hatch being called into private conference with the auctioneers and sellers, but each time the men emerged with no change showing on their faces.

"I'd like to buy it," Hatch said, "but I can't go much higher."

Dandliker said his plan had been to purchase the mill, tear it apart and recycle the equipment.

"It's an obsolete mill," he said. "It can't compete with high-tech mills."

It would have been useless, he added, to try to restart Three Rivers.

"The last four years haven't been very kind to the timber industry," Dandliker said. "It would be expensive to renovate. What's a mill worth when it's not making any money?"

Hatch, on the other hand, said he intended to take over the mill and get it running again to put people back to work.

"As soon as the market comes back, and it's coming back now," Hatch said.

In the end, Murphy said the mill would no longer be offered as a single unit. Instead, the Inverness Group will set another auction date within 60 days and sell the assets piecemeal. Murphy said anyone who has a change of mind about buying the mill as a whole, should act quickly and get hold of Inverness before the second auction is scheduled.

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Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@camasnet.com or (208) 983-2326.