In the early twenties when company president R. A. Long sent "Uncle Bill" Ryder to scout the Pacific Northwest for a location for Long-Bell's western expansion, Ryder noticed the transitory nature of the region's loggers. In most cases, the men lived in tents close to the operation and remote from civilization. When the loggers married and had families, they would abandon their vocation.
Long, a strong Christian and family man who also founded nearby Longview, adopted the concept of a "family logging camp" for Ryderwood, only the second of its kind. (Snoqualmie Falls, Washington, was the first.)
Wanting to provide its employees and their families with accommodations found in conventional towns, Long-Bell established a variety of businesses. The company store carried clothing and groceries and housed a meat market. Through the years, Ryderwood also hailed a barber shop and a beauty parlor, a Texaco station, a dry cleaner and a shoe repair shop, a cafe, a movie theatre, a creamery, a jewelry store, a "confectionery" that stocked over-the-counter drugs, an insurance office, a church, an inn, and a community hall--almost all of which were owned by Long-Bell. For a time, the company even provided a zoo. Jack and Jill, two black bears found in Long-Bell's forests, were brought to town and housed in cages to entertain the townspeople.
Although the inn that housed single men and teachers was named "the Tavern," the company didn't deal in the liquor business. After a brief stint of selling beer at the company store, they discontinued this practice due to the number of men who overused the service. To buy a beer after a long day at work, a logger would have to walk a mile out of town to the real taverns at Johnsonville.