If you’re from Warren or have lived here for any amount of time you know where PotlatchDeltic is, and you’ve probably driven by it from time to time. But just to the right is an office building that is the home of Timber Logistics. Timber Logistics has been owned and operated by Clint Horn since 2004, which would make this year 20.
Horn moved to Bradley County in February of 1999 to work for Potlatch. He is originally from a little town named Shippensburg, which is located in south-central Pennsylvania. Before moving to Warren, Horn was teaching logger education and working on his master’s in forestry at Mississippi State University. But before he received his master’s, he earned his associate degree and then his undergraduate degree from Penn State, both in forestry. He also earned a minor in statistics.
Horn has always loved the forest. When he was young, his grandfather was a road foreman for the Michaux State Forrest, which is located in Horn’s hometown of Shippensburg. Horn would ride around the mountains with his grandfather as he was checking the roads and doing other tasks that a road foreman did. During those times, Horn developed an interest in the forest. Horn also comes from a family that has always hunted and fished.
“I grew up doing all of those things so to be outdoors in the forest has always been my thing,” Horn said.
But Horn doesn’t only own Timber Logistics. He is also the new owner of Log-N-Stix, which is a business that sells heavy-duty parts for trucks, forestry equipment, and logging and forestry supplies. When asked how he acquired Log-N-Stix, he said that the previous owner was retiring.
“It just made sense with everything else we were doing,” Horn said.
Log-N-Stix is working on stocking everything that is used in the timber industry. They still sell everything that has always been sold, but they are adding new lines and new products as they try to build. Horn didn’t want to own Log-N-Stix just to own another business. He wants to eliminate the need for loggers to go to five or six different places.
“If you can make one stop to get what you need at a fair price and available locally, it saves guys time and makes them more efficient,” Horn said.
One of Horn’s goals is to have supplies and parts on hand. He said that he has had to wait two or three days for a certain piece of equipment to come in and by the time that he’s gotten what he needs, he lost more time than he should’ve. Warren is in a unique area because it is at least an hour from everything. Horn is working to try to supply products locally so that fewer people are losing fewer days.
“The more I get into the business, the more I hope to stock so I can keep guys from having downtime,” Horn said.
After moving to Warren and working for Potlatch for a couple of years, Horn had the opportunity to buy into a local woodyard. He said he knew it was something that he could make happen. In October of 2004, he opened the doors to Timber Logistics.
When I asked him exactly what Timber Logistics did, Horn gave me an excellent description.
“We handle everything in the timber business from its point of origin in the woods to its point of consumption at the mill,” Horn said.
Horn is doing something right because Timber Logistics is still open and doing well. To operate a successful business, you have to do the right thing for the right reason. Horn operates his business with good ethics, integrity, and professionalism. He stands by what he says and stays true to his commitments.
“If I tell someone that I’m going to do something, I’m going to make every effort to do it. Sometimes things happen that you don’t foresee, but I do try,” Horn said.
Horn is not only a business owner. He is also a fireman. When he was 15, Horn was a junior fireman. His grandfather was on a wildlings crew and would work wildfires.
“It’s something that stuck with me and resonated over the years and it just all fit together,” Horn said.
In 2023, Horn was voted Citizen of the Year by the residents of Bradley County. He found out when his wife Allana told him that she had seen it in the paper. Horn was very surprised. But he says that he doesn’t feel like he does anything spectacular. He lives a normal life of going to work, going home, and handling the firehouse. But then as he continued that sentence, he added in the words, “doing charity stuff.” I don’t know about you, but for the average person, that last part isn’t usually in their daily activity. However, he did get over the initial shock and expressed his deep appreciation.
“I’m very appreciative. It’s nice to know that people see some of the things that you do and recognize them. But my first thought is that I think of other people that are just as deserving,” Horn said.
For the past two years, Timber Logistics has sponsored a Christmas tree decorating contest and the winner gets to pick a local charity and Horn donates to that charity. He said that his wife and daughter started the contest and took the idea and ran with it.
“We wanted to do something where we could donate to a local charity for Christmas and get people involved with us and our website,” Horn said.
When asked about the charities that they were involved in, Horn was quick to answer. He was heavily involved in the Log-A-Load for Kids program here in Bradley County for a while. If you aren’t familiar with Log-A-Load, it is a charity that started in North Carolina and is used to raise money for children’s hospitals. The original idea was that loggers would donate the same amount of money that it takes to log a load of wood and donate it to a children’s hospital. Arkansas is heavily involved in Log-A-Load and in Bradley County, the money has gone towards helping with redoing the emergency room at Bradley County Medical Center. For several years, money was being raised to go towards the purchase of a helicopter and that helicopter got the Log-A-Load insignia. His wife, Allana was also involved in the Junior Auxiliary. Together, the Horns like to focus on charities that help children.
“We were able to put a lot of different things back into the program at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock,” Horn said.
I could see almost immediately that Horn is humble and just from the short amount of time that I spent with him, I could see that he is doing good things for the right reason. He wants to be a part of the Warren community and he wants whatever he does to benefit Warren. For all of these reasons, Clint Horn is our Hometown Hero.
