Arkansas Business

Deltic Timber Corp.

The history of what is now Deltic Timber Corp. dates to the early 1900s, when C.H. Murphy Sr. started investing in timberland and build a sawmill in south Arkansas.

Murphy continued to acquire land and in 1952, he transferred his holdings to Murphy Corp., his oil and banking company. The holdings formed the basis for Deltic Farm & Timber Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the larger Murphy company.

With the boom in the oil and petroleum portion of the business, Murphy Corp. became Murphy Oil Corp. But Deltic continued to grow. Deltic entered the lumber manufacturing business with the construction of sawmills in Ola in 1971 and Waldo in 1974.

In 1989, Deltic began selling residential property in Chenal Valley, a real estate development in west Little Rock, an area of the city poised for great growth leading into the late 90s.

In late 1996, amid a slump in its core oil business, Murphy Oil spun off Deltic Farm & Timber, which was reincorporated as Deltic Timber Corp.

Today, the El Dorado-based company about 446,000 acres of timberland, mainly in Arkansas and north Louisiana. It holds a 50 percent interest in Del-Tin Fiber LLC, a joint venture to make and sell medium density fiberboard. And its upscale Chenal Valley development is a premier planned community consisting of 4,800 acres of residential and commercial properties in west Little Rock.