Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
For more than four decades, Elder Hardwoods has been quietly doing something rare in modern business. They plan decades ahead.
Led by Russell Elder, this family run Texas hardwood company practices sustainable forestry with a long term mindset. Their work focuses on selective harvesting, natural regeneration, and replanting hardwood forests that will take 35 to 50 years to fully mature. It is a business built not just for today, but for future generations.
Based in the heart of East Texas timber country, Elder Hardwoods produces high quality hardwood lumber used in homes across Texas and beyond. Their materials include cypress, oak, walnut, cherry, and custom slab wood often used for exposed beams, rustic interiors, flooring, mantels, and handcrafted furniture. Unlike fast growth pine operations focused on volume, Elder Hardwoods emphasizes quality, craftsmanship, and visible wood products meant to last.
What began as a small sawmill project to build a grandmother’s house grew into a multi generation operation with four generations of the Elder family working side by side. From sustainable forest management to custom hardwood milling, their story reflects the deep connection between Texas land, family legacy, and responsible stewardship.
If you are searching for information about hardwoods in homes, sustainable forestry in Texas, or the story behind one of the state’s most respected hardwood producers, this Texas Country Reporter profile offers a rare look inside a generational business measured in decades, not quarters.
Watch more stories like this from Texas Country Reporter, where we travel the back roads of Texas to meet the people shaping the state through hard work, tradition, and vision for the future.
Russell Elder
elderhardwoodsinc.com
Tik Tok ► vm.tiktok.com/ZMR7EpeVw
Facebook ► facebook.com/TexasCountryReporter
Instagram ► instagram.com/texascountryreporter
Texas Country Reporter
Episode #: 1986
Original air date: 9-20-2024
For more than four decades, Elder Hardwoods has been quietly doing something rare in modern business. They plan decades ahead.
Led by Russell Elder, this family run Texas hardwood company practices sustainable forestry with a long term mindset. Their work focuses on selective harvesting, natural regeneration, and replanting hardwood forests that will take 35 to 50 years to fully mature. It is a business built not just for today, but for future generations.
Based in the heart of East Texas timber country, Elder Hardwoods produces high quality hardwood lumber used in homes across Texas and beyond. Their materials include cypress, oak, walnut, cherry, and custom slab wood often used for exposed beams, rustic interiors, flooring, mantels, and handcrafted furniture. Unlike fast growth pine operations focused on volume, Elder Hardwoods emphasizes quality, craftsmanship, and visible wood products meant to last.
What began as a small sawmill project to build a grandmother’s house grew into a multi generation operation with four generations of the Elder family working side by side. From sustainable forest management to custom hardwood milling, their story reflects the deep connection between Texas land, family legacy, and responsible stewardship.
If you are searching for information about hardwoods in homes, sustainable forestry in Texas, or the story behind one of the state’s most respected hardwood producers, this Texas Country Reporter profile offers a rare look inside a generational business measured in decades, not quarters.
Watch more stories like this from Texas Country Reporter, where we travel the back roads of Texas to meet the people shaping the state through hard work, tradition, and vision for the future.
Russell Elder
elderhardwoodsinc.com
Tik Tok ► vm.tiktok.com/ZMR7EpeVw
Facebook ► facebook.com/TexasCountryReporter
Instagram ► instagram.com/texascountryreporter
Texas Country Reporter
Episode #: 1986
Original air date: 9-20-2024
