A Williams Lake company taking part in the Trade Canada West trade mission to the United States has signed a contract for what is for what is likely the worlds largest log home � a mansion three-quarters the size of a football field.

The $6.2 million home, being built for Oklahoma businessman Jim Moore will be 114,000 square feet, Pioneer Log Homes general manager Andre Chevigny said Thursday. It is already under construction at Pioneers Williams Lake operation.

"It's quite a mansion," Chevigny said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. "It's made from all oversized logs. Its all Western Red Cedar and when it's assembled it will take more than 60 trucks to haul it down to Colorado."

A Tulsa, Okla., print and internet publisher, Moore intends to locate his log home on a 7,000 acre ranch he owns near Steamboat Springs, Colo.

The four-story home has a approx. footprint of 630 by 100 feet. By comparison, a U.S. football field including the end zones, is only slightly larger at about 400 by 165 feet.

The mansion is defiantly the largest log home in North America, and probably in the world, Chevigny said, although a log hotel outside Ottawa is larger.

Pioneer uses red cedar for most of its log homes, not only for its character and beauty but for longevity as well.

"This home is being engineered to last 400 years," Chevigny said.

A special feature of the home will be a fifteen foot thick cedar tree trunk in the library that includes the roots. That single post, by the time it is completed, will probably cost $100,000, Chevigny said.

Pioneer is on the trade mission to promote its log homes in the U.S. and to give British Columbia's forest products industry a boost.

B.C Premier Gordon Campbell, who, along with Prime Minister Jean Chr�tien was at a signing ceremony for the log home in Dallas Tex., on Wednesday, intends to dismantle a significant piece of forestry legislation that provides access to timber for value-added operations.

The government is considering the changes as part of its drive to move the B.C. forest industry toward a more market-based economy and to obtain free access for B.C. lumber to the U.S. However, without access to timber, businesses like Pioneer fear they will have a difficult time obtaining the high-quality logs they need. Access to timber gives them the ability to trade with major licensees, more interested in volume, to get specific logs for construction.

Log homes represent one of the highest uses of B.C. timber, said Chevigny pointing out that the home for Moore is employing 50 people for a full year.

By comparison, it would take 1,200 logging truckloads of timber to provide the same number of jobs converting trees to softwood lumber.

(Caption under the picture)
Jim Moore's new home will cost $6.2 million to build and is longer than a football field in length.

(Caption under picture at bottom of page)
Pioneer Log Homes carefully unloads this 76,000lb cedar. This tree is one of many being structurally used inside the 114,000 sq. ft. home that will eventually be moved to Colorado. This tree will stand in the library including the roots to support the 56 ft high ceiling. (The new owners will have quite the family tree.)