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Ms. Cheap: Madison Mill offers free pile of wood scraps




Madison Mill owner Jackson Balthrop stands next to the piles of free wood scraps at his Ashland City facility.Mary Hance / Main Street Nashville/Murfreesboro Post

Madison Mill owner Jackson Balthrop stands next to the piles of free wood scraps at his Ashland City facility.Mary Hance / Main Street Nashville/Murfreesboro Post

Now that the weather has officially become chilly, finding free kindling for your fireplace or woodstove is a welcome offering.

And Madison Mill’s Ashland City plant has an ever-growing pile of wood scraps available to anyone who wants to come get it.

Madison Mill owner Jackson Balthrop says his company, which is the largest maker of wooden dowels in North America, ends up with hundreds of pounds of leftover pieces of kiln-dried poplar, oak and hickory.

“There is always waste,” said Balthrop, who said some of the scraps are ground up to make particle board and sawdust for various uses. “But we just have this for the community.”

The pile of wood scraps (mostly small blocks), which is replenished almost daily, is located in the company parking lot on Bluegrass Drive off Highway 12 in Ashland City and is available for pickup 24 hours a day.

Balthrop said the scraps, which are good burning wood, are usually picked up to be used for home heating and fire pits but that some people pick up stock for craft projects.

Mary Hance Mary Hance Mary Hance

Mary Hance Mary Hance Mary Hance

“People are welcome to it,” he said, adding that takers will need to load it themselves and should bring containers to fill, and maybe a shovel for easier loading.

“We have had people use everything from buckets to dog food bags to trash cans,” he said, adding that there is no limit to how much of the wood you can take.

Also, he said be aware that even though the piles are available 24 hours a day, there are no lights in the parking lot, so daytime load-ups are recommended.

The mill operation, which employs about 100 workers on two shifts in the 240,000-square-foot plant, has been in business since 1959. It was at 42nd Avenue North and Charlotte Pike for many years before moving to the Ashland City property in 2015.

In addition to producing about 15 sizes of hardwood dowels, the company makes wooden clothes drying racks, garden stakes, wine racks, flag sticks, broom and other tool handles, closet rods, craft supplies and other wood products.

Madison Mill sells to companies including Lowe’s Home Improvement, Ace Hardware, Walmart and The Container Store.

With this free wood source, I hope you can stay warm as well as cheap!

Mary Hance, who has four decades of journalism experience in the Nashville area, writes a weekly Ms. Cheap column. She also appears on Thursdays on “Talk of the Town” on NewsChannel 5. Reach her at mscheap@mainstreetmediatn.com and follow her on Facebook at Facebook.com/mscheap.

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