Investing In The Future

PALCO also led the way in providing employee benefits. From 1920 to 1950, the Company built affordable employee housing, stores, a school, a hospital, a skating rink, and a theatre, implemented an employee pension plan, and provided free life insurance. In 1961, PALCO began offering competitive academic scholarships to employees' children, and today that program has been expanded to provide college scholarships on a noncompetitive basis to the graduating high school students of all PALCO employees.

In 1975, PALCO was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. At this time, no individual or group owned more than five percent of the Company's stock. In 1986, 82 percent of PALCO's shareholders approved a merger with Houston-based Maxxam, Inc. Two years later, PALCO adopted a voluntary moratorium on clearcutting virgin redwood forests.

Shake, Rattle, and Rebuild

In 1992, disaster rocked Scotia. Humboldt County was hit by three major earthquakes in 18 hours. The quakes damaged homes, wrecked two sawmills, and caused a fire that destroyed the town's shopping center. PALCO executives responded to the tragedy the same way earlier owners responded to the devastating 1895 fire. They vowed that the Company and the town of Scotia would emerge even stronger than before. Plans began almost immediately to rebuild the shopping center, a project directed by a Sacramento-area architect who had grown up in Scotia and attended college on a Company scholarship.