People

Brooke was raised in the shake and shingle world, spending her summers working at the mills. After attending SFU and BCIT, Brooke ultimately ended up joining her father at Anbrook, learning from the ground up just how tough running a shingle mill really is. After 20 years and a lot of animated “conversations” with Clay, Brooke now steers the ship alongside a great group of people.

Favorites:

BAND: Pearl Jam
DRINK: Knob Creek Bourbon on the rocks.
PASTIMES: Running, fishing, anything fun that’s borderline legal.

Clay was raised alongside his 5 brothers in the cedar industry, all of them forging their way in the cedar business in some capacity. His early days in the business were driving truck, delivering product throughout the Pacific Northwest for his father’s companies. But he had bigger aspirations: his first mill, Clayton Cedar Products, was one of the largest shake producers in the industry in the 1970’s and 80’s. Later, Clay decided that a “boutique” operation suited his personal ideology better, and the finest quality cedar shakes and shingles in the industry began to be produced next door at Anbrook Industries.

BAND: The Eagles
DRINK: Manhattan with a twist (God help you if you put a cherry in it)
PASTIMES: Golfing, boating or anything with his grandkids

Toke moved to the Fraser Valley in the 1940s and started Meeker Cedar Products, which would become the largest shake manufacturer in the industry. He invented many of the products and methods that are still used in the industry today, such as the automatic split and resawn shake, the tapersawn shake and the "square" pack. It was Toke who paved the way for many manufacturers in the cedar shake & shingle industry, at one point selling over 70 mills' production into the US market. His nickname "The Shake King" was well-earned; he was a tireless innovator and pioneer, and after his passing was named Citizen of the Millenium by the City of Mission.

Henry was born and raised in Connecticut. In 1908 he immigrated to Merritt, BC and acquired the Canford lumber mill, rebuilding it and renaming it the Nicola Valley Pine Mill, supplying the city of Merritt with power from its’ steam turbines and building a railway to gain access to logs. In the 1920’s he moved to the Fraser Valley and started Stave Lake Cedar Mills, and thus began the Meeker family legacy of shake & shingle production.