BURNHAM, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- The town of Burnham is now the new home of the Lincoln Log manufacturer. Pride Manufacturing, a company that's been making wooden products like golf tees and cigar tips in Maine since 1956, has teamed up with K'nex to bring the toy's production and jobs back to the United States.
Pride is currently in trial production with the product, making only about 10,000 logs a week for K'nex to inspect. According the company's executives, Pride will soon begin producing hundreds of thousands of Lincoln Logs on a weekly basis. The addition of Lincoln Log production at the company will bring in about $1 million a year in revenue and add up to 10 jobs at Pride, which currently employees 130 people. Some of the plastic parts will still be produced in China, but 80 percent of the Lincoln Log products will be produced in the U.S once again.
"It's a big deal for us. What's happened to the manufacturing sector the last 10 to 15 years, Pride's been lucky enough to be able to continue to operate. And anything that comes back into the United States is a plus when you're a manufacturer," said Randy Dicker, senior director of manufacturing at Pride.
Maine is now home to two brands of log building sets. Aside from Lincoln Logs, Roy Toy is still producing a similar version of the wooden toy set out of East Machias. Roy Toy's weren't developed until 1930, while Lincoln Logs were invented in 1916.
