When you buy lumber from a mill you order it by the board ft. When you buy fencing from a company you buy it by the lineal foot times the height you want. Most of the lumber purchased was either 6x6x6 ft long (18 board foot) or 2" thick lumber in varying lengths and widths. When you rehab a house you repair what is needed, you don't start from scratch and tear down the whole house and call it a rehab. Some places in the mine where the major cave-ins occured required substantial supporting structures to support the ceiling and walls, not all of the mine tunnels needed support. Eash of the shoots required rebuilding and most of that was done with 2 x 6 boards or 2 x 8 boards of varying length. I am a woodworker by hobby, been doing it my whole life so with that in mind I was interested in what they had purchased and where it came from, I was also very much impressed with how they shored up some of the areas that caved in. I am only commenting on the mis-information about the lumber purchase. Call a lumber yard and ask how much a 6x6 x 8' post cost, even a volume purchase straight from the mill is very expensive and consider having it shipped from Redding, CA to the mine. The mine does have a sawmill, it is not in the same area of the mine as the mill and tunnel entrance are and needs alot of work to make it functional and the man power to run it as well as the manpower and equipment to cut and move the trees to the mill. It was more economical to buy it directly from a mill.
