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Early Life
Noah Falk, the one of the founders of Falk, was born on June 11, 1836 in Greenville, Pennsylvania. He was the oldest of five siblings.

Early Sawmill Work
Noah moved to California during the Gold Rush in 1854, and took the sea route- from the East Coast to Panama, then across the isthmus and north to San Francisco, arriving on August 19, 1854. After hearing of Redwood logging on the northern coast of California, Falk moved to Mendocino county and work as a carpenter to construct the Albion Mill and Lumber Company. He continued his way north and arrived at Port Madison in Puget Sound in what was then the Washington Territory. He then worked at G.A. Meggs Sawmill, which provided working information of sawing techniques and how sawmills worked. It was in Port Madison that Falk met Nancy Brown, whom he married on August 10, 1862.

Noah and Nancy moved to Santa Cruz, where Falk got a job at a water-powered sawmill where he met local baker John Green. Noah and John decided to form a partnership, move to Eureka, CA, and open a bakery. When they arrived in Eureka, Falk worked for the Carson Lumber Company after William Carson heard about Falk's previous sawmill work. Falk worked for Carson for two years until he had saved enough money to open his own sawmill in 1869. Falk's company, named Falk, Chandler, and Company, was build on Jane's Creek in Arcata and opened the small Jane Creek Mill.

Falk partnered with Isaac Minor, another businessman to build two more mills, the Dolly Varden Mill and the Jolly Giant Mill, which could produce 45,000 board feet of lumber a day and employed 50 men, making them the leading small mills in the county at that time.

in 1875, Falk installed a prototype of the bandsaw, which initially failed, but in later years would revolutionize logging in the county.

In 1875, Noah reorganized to get back into the logging business. In 1878, after their father had died four years prior, Elijah, Noah's younger brother, sold his sawmill investments in Ohio and moved his family out to Northern California. Elijah learned the millwright trade under his brother at the Dolly Varden and Jolly Giant mills.

In November 1882, Noah Falk's mills only had a few more years of millable timber left. It was time to look for a new possible mill site. Judge Cyrus G Stafford and partner Frank Taylor invested in thousands of acres of unlogged timberland on the South Fork of the Eel River. The partners had no experience logging or milling redwood, and turned to Noah Falk and Elijah Falk for help. The area was still very rural at the time, so the investment to even begin logging would be very high. In November 1882, the Elk River Lumber Company was incorporated.

Elk River Lumber Company
Noah Falk, Cyrus Stafford, and J.C. Hawley from San Francisco were the primary shareholders for the Elk River Lumber Company. Due to its location in the untouched South Fork of the Eel River, the company had to start by building a railroad. Th Elk River Railroad Company was formed in October 1882 with Noah Falk and Judge Stafford holding the majority of the shared. The company then had to sue various landowners to create a right of way for the railroad to pass, and it turned out that the company, upon building the railroad to the mill site, ran out of money to build the mill and the railroad was constructed incorrectly and would not be able to handle the projected loads that would be on it when the mill was up and running. Carson Lumber Company and California Redwood Company took over the construction of the rail road (which would benefit their companies as well) under the name of the Bucksport and Elk River Railroad Company.

Elijah Falk complered the construction of the mill, which was completed in 1884, which included a dam. The mill began official production in 1886.

Jonas Falk, a younger Falk brother, moved to the area with his wife, Mary Falk in 1886 and worked as a mill foreman.

This lumber company incorporated the Dolbeer Steam Donkey engine in 1886, a tool which revolutionized Redwood logging by providing the strength needed to move felled old growth trees that were previously unmovable. Noah also incorporated the Stearns Bandsaw into the mill, which was the first successful usage of the bandsaw of that kind in the county. With time, every mill in the county had followed Falk's lead and switched from circular saws to bandsaws.

On July 21, 1890, the Elk River Mill burned to the ground when a spark fell on a pile of sawdust. 100,000 board feet of timber was lost, along with the entirity of the mill. Based on the amount of standing timber remaining in the area, the owners decided it was worthwhile to rebuild. With the Help of ELijah Falk, the mill was refitted with updated equipment, and some equipmenr from the Jane Creek mill. By fall of 1890, the mill was up and running once more.

Retirement and Passing the Torch
Noah Falk died in Arcata on March 10, 1928 at the age of 91.

Family
Falk's first two children had died very young. Their first child to survive was Charles Falk in 1869