That was difficult.
Customers kept asking.
Media producers kept calling.
Every few years, some online account rediscovered the old story and exaggerated it again.
The numbers grew.
Forty dollars became twenty dollars.
Twenty-seven burls became fifty.
Four hundred thousand became eight hundred thousand.
One video claimed the eleven-year-old boy had discovered “gold hidden inside maple roots.”
Another claimed antique coins were inside the brass tube.
A third said the grandfather had been murdered by timber thieves.
The shop manager watched that one in complete silence.
Then turned off the screen.
An apprentice asked:
“Are you mad?”
“I’m impressed.”
“By what?”
“How many lies fit into ninety seconds.”
The mill posted a short factual page.
No outrage.
Just:
The burls were legally purchased at auction.
The first burl contained a brass tube holding provenance records.
No currency, gold, or criminal evidence was discovered.
The collection was processed over decades.
Exact lifetime gross value varied by accounting method and was never a single instant appraisal.
The grandfather died of natural causes.
The eleven-year-old did not operate the industrial saw.
That last line was bold.
The shop manager insisted.
Why?
Because online recreations kept showing children using large machinery.
Safety mattered more than dramatic accuracy.
One creator contacted the mill requesting permission to film.
The producer promised:
“We’ll make the kid look capable.”
The manager answered:
“He was capable.”
“He also stood away from the blade.”
The producer said:
“Can we show him touching the machine?”
“No.”
“What about starting it?”
“No.”
“Pushing the burl with supervision?”
“No.”
The producer sighed.
“That removes the hero moment.”
The manager replied:
“His hero moment was saying no to a bad offer.”
The producer never called back.
Fine.
The mill’s employee ownership expanded.
By the time the founder would have been over a hundred years old, no single person owned more than fifteen percent.
Major decisions required a board.
Workers elected representation.
Financials were shared internally.
Not everything was harmonious.
Employee-owned businesses still contained employees.
Which meant arguments.
One year, the board nearly split over whether to expand into high-volume flooring.
The numbers looked good.
A national distributor offered a contract.
Guaranteed purchases.
Large volume.
The expansion required more kiln capacity and would shift attention away from specialty wood.
Younger employees wanted growth.
Older ones feared losing identity.
The debate became emotional.
One meeting lasted six hours.
Someone finally shouted:
“The founder would never do this!”