Hi all,
I’ve been trying to keep in touch with the fine folks of Altavista over the last year and I’ve got some fruit from those contacts to share today.
I will have some information about my Richmond trip over the next few days – so watch for that.
It has been confirmed, on very good authority, the last Lane miniature box was made in the Altavista Lane Miniature department in 1999. However, this doesn’t jive with what we’ve said all along about boxes being distributed as late as 2004. So, what gives?
The entire box manufacturing line (machinery) was sold by Lane after 1999 to a firm that moved it to Boston, Kentucky. Lane ordered 5000 units (miniature boxes) from this new company and these boxes were distributed from around 2002 – 2004. And that’s the end of the story. It is believed the assembly line is still probably sitting in a warehouse somewhere in Kentucky – wasting away.
Photos of 2004 box purchased by Lane from a company using their “old” equipment…
The second benefit of my Altavista contacts comes via social media. I shared my newly completed website with my friends in Altavista and they shared it with their friends through Facebook. The number of total visitors to www.lanecedarbox.com jumped in the last 48 hours from 238 to well over 800! Are we viral!? Thank you to Altavista for your help – you know who you are!
The more people that visit the site, the more people know about (or are reminded about) our boxes and the more chances we can learn more about them! How exciting! I’ve already got lots of messages from nice folks about this blog and the site.
The last main thing that needs to be added the site is a forum for chatting and sharing. Coming soon. In the mean time, communicate with me through this blog or directly to my e-mail, chadhilk@gmail.com.
Thank you everyone!
Chad
Lane Cedar Box 
Chad, Gwen back…just had a thought…when I was working at Lane there was a guy there who was over the miniature department while I was there and his name was Larry Brummett..I think I remember him working out there…he is still living in this area…have you had any contact with hm?? Mike Hudson may have already told you about him…
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Gwen, I was introduced to Larry last year when I was in Altavista and was able to spend over an hour with him. He was definitely a wealth of knowledge for me!
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