From the farm to the forest
Clifton “Skip” Hammond was born September 22, 1927, in Belgrade, Maine, and grew up on the family farm. Like many in rural Maine, he learned early how to work with his hands, splitting his youth between chores in the barn and “woods work” in the surrounding forests. In high school, he drove a dump truck, gaining mechanical skills that would serve him for decades.
During his service in the U.S. military, Skip was stationed in the Philippines. When he returned home, he was elected Belgrade’s Road Commissioner – maintaining the town’s roads while still spending his winters harvesting timber.
A $50 gamble that changed everything
In 1953, Skip and a partner started a small, diesel-powered sawmill along Route 27 in Belgrade. The partnership didn’t last, and later that year Skip bought the whole operation for just $50 – money borrowed from his wife, Verna.
At first, it was a humble three-man crew. On fair days they worked in the woods cutting logs; when rain came, they’d saw them in an open shed. In 1958, Skip built his first forklift from the frame of an old four-wheel-drive Army truck – proof of the mechanical creativity that became his trademark.
Building a mill and a business
By 1959, Skip purchased a planer mill, allowing him to produce his own finish lumber. Eight years later, in 1967, the company established its retail division, with Skip’s son Donald spearheading sales and store operations. Skip focused on the manufacturing and mechanical side—keeping the mill running, upgrading systems, and finding ways to do more with less.
Yankee ingenuity in action
The cost of new equipment was often out of reach, but that didn’t stop Skip. Drawing on “Yankee ingenuity,” he and his crew designed and built much of what they needed themselves: conveyors and tables for the planer mill, automatic lumber stackers, additional forklifts, custom truck bodies, bark processors, warehouse structures, and more. The mill wasn’t just a workplace – it was a workshop of constant invention.
From Belgrade to the region
As the Belgrade Lakes region grew, so did Hammond Lumber. The company’s reputation for quality products and personal service spread, leading to expansions into new towns while keeping the headquarters firmly planted in Belgrade. In 2018, the acquisition of EBS Building Supplies made Hammond one of the largest independent building-supply dealers in the Northeast. In 2020, the purchase of Tukey Brothers in North Belgrade brought a second lumber mill under the company’s banner, reinforcing Belgrade as both its home and manufacturing heart.
A lasting legacy
Skip Hammond passed away in 2022, but his spirit is still everywhere – in the handcrafted equipment still in use, in the values passed down through four generations and in the company’s unbroken commitment to serving Maine’s builders, homeowners, and communities.
From a $50 bet on a small sawmill to a 900-employee enterprise with over 20 locations, Hammond Lumber remains, at its core, a Belgrade family business built on hard work, self-reliance and the belief that if you can’t buy it, you can build it.