Evan and Charlie Nelson started The Nelson Paint Company in 1940 in a small garage in Iron Mountain.

By 1940, the timber industry was changing as foresters moved away from clear-cutting toward managed timberlands. To mark trees selected to be cut back then, the forester would put a rock in a sock, dip it into house paint and slap the trees with it.

The problem with marking the trees with a standard housepaint was the marks would only last for maybe a month. Evan and Charlie Nelson developed a paint formula that would not only stand out but stay visible for years in some cases.

Despite having to take some time off during World War II, the young company, then headquartered in Kingsford, grew.

THE NELSON PAINT Company is at 1 Nelson Drive in Kingsford. (Jim Paul/Daily News photo)

To serve more of the United States and North America, The Nelson Paint Company opened facilities in Montgomery, Ala., in 1958 and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, in 1987. The company also operates a warehouse in Nampa, Idaho.

The company now has 38 employees, 25 at the Kingsford headquarters at 1 Nelson Drive.

Three generations of the Nelson family have operated the company and Assistant Vice President Melanie Louys will make the fourth.

More than eight decades later, tree-marking and boundary paint is still the heart of The Nelson Paint Company, making up about 90% of total business.

The most popular marking product is Aero Spot, with 18 colors in aerosol cans. While the company’s marking paints typically remain visible for four to six years, there have been instances of it remaining visible up to 20 years.

From the tree-marking paint came another phenomenon — the game of paintball.

In the 1960s, customers in Oregon presented the company with a problem — they were having difficulty marking trees across ravines.

The Nelson Paint Company developed a paint ball and worked with the Daisy Company on a gun that could shoot it.

“Fast forward to 1981, two of our customers are messing around in the woods after a day of marking timber and they start shooting each other,” said Ryan Holm, the company’s sales, business development and logistics manager. “That is how the game of paintball started in New Hampshire, 1981.”

During the peak years from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, The Nelson Paint Company became the number one name in the country selling paintballs until foreign competition began to affect sales.

From paintballs, the encapsulation part has grown beyond just paint — the list of items is large, such as herbicide to be shot out of a helicopter to kill an invasive species or grease to get at hard-to-reach parts of a large turbine.

“It is pretty neat how things have changed with technology over the years,” Holm said. “We are the people that find solutions for folks.”

Other types of paint the company makes include equipment enamel used on tractors, trailers and plows; floor enamels; gym floor urethane; and pavement marking paint. It even developed a urethane for Iverson Snowshoes, made in Houghton County.

In addition, The Nelson Paint Company produces a special non-toxic paint, “Beagle Yellow,” to mark dogs competing in field trials; it is a popular item.

One thing the company does not make that may surprise people is house paint — they got out of that business several years ago. However, in the local paint store Nelson Paint Company partners with PPG paints and can match most colors.

The Nelson Paint Company takes pride in what it delivers, Holm said. “Quality is number one and customer service is right behind it,” he said. “Our customers are good people, hardworking people — we go to bat and do anything we can.”

He added that when a customer calls, a person answers and if there is a problem, it goes directly to Holm, not several others first.

As for the future, Louys plans to maintain The Nelson Paint Company’s strengths. “Keeping our current customers happy, staying ahead of the competition and getting even more customers,” she said.

The company’s retail store in Kingsford is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The office can be reached at 800-236-9278.