Twister Hill Hardwoods - a central Iowa sawmill offering native Midwest hardwoods, live edge slabs, and custom wood products.
Call us: 515-509-9058
Twister Hill Hardwoods - a central Iowa sawmill offering native Midwest hardwoods, live edge slabs, and custom wood products.
Call us: 515-509-9058
Welcome to Twister Hill Hardwoods. We are a small, two-family midwest business processing and selling quality local hardwood lumber and live-edge slabs. We are focused on repurposing (as lumber and live edge slabs) trees that have come to the end of their lives or are being removed by landowners. All wood is then processed, kiln-dried, and heat sterilized ready to be turned into your next project.
We are self-sustaining. Much of our equipment is refurbished in our shop, including our circular mill, circa 1920's. Our latest addition includes an electric bandsaw mill with a cutting capacity of 60" wide by 20' long, completely fabricated in our own shop. Check out the video in the "Photo Gallery".
With our custom-made equipment, we have the capacity to provide large live-edge slabs. Live edge slabs are available as large as 3" thick by 60" wide by 16' long. While we are a small mid-west business, we have provided semi-loads of slabs and logs to customers as far away as Montana and Colorado.
Need us to ‘finish’ your walnut wood slab? We can provide you with a finished table, desk, or custom slab piece, to your specifications.
We offer wood in any stage depending on your needs: Logs, slabbed/milled, green or kiln-dried, or flattened slabs. All logs are sealed as soon as they are cut to protect against end cracking.
Twister Hill Hardwoods offers kiln dried dimensional lumber and live-edge slabs. Wood inventory includes Black Walnut, White Oak (quarter and plain sawn), Red Oak, Maple, Ash, Hickory and other woods native to the midwestern United States. Our lumber is typically skip-planed to 4/4 but we can custom mill or finish plane to your specifications.
Check out the "Inventory" button to learn more.
Several scenes in the movie "Twister" (starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton) were filmed in the area of Twister Hill Hardwoods. The scene where they are attempting to launch ‘Dorothy’ during a hailstorm was filmed on a hill and bridge just a couple of miles from our business, where county road E-18 crosses the Des Moines River. The hill has been unofficially named “Twister Hill”. (Twister Hill movie site is shown on the Direction/Google Map accessible from the “Contact” page.)
Our main sawmill "Dusty" is an old circular blade mill from the early 1900’s, rescued from nearby timber and refurbished to serve our operations.
Our custom slab flattener "Toto" (shown to the left) can level large slabs, up to 60 inches wide and 20 feet long leaving both sides flat and uniform thickness ready for final sanding and finishing.
"Dorothy" is our bandsaw with a cutting capacity up to 60" in diameter and 20' long.
When a derecho (inland hurricane) hit central Iowa in 2020, Twister Hill partner Gary Zunkel lost a couple of 150+ year-old oak trees. As a woodworker, he couldn’t bear to just turn the trees into firewood or mulch. So, he had several trees milled and started to air dry them. (Photo to the right of the first tree!) He then partnered with Mike Diggs (who had the land and an interest in reclaiming trees) to form Twister Hill Hardwoods, LLC.
Twister Hill Hardwoods has grown from saving a couple of trees into a business with a refurbished circular sawmill, a 5000-board-foot capacity kiln, and equipment to cut, smooth, and flatten large slabs and lumber from native trees.