You are here: Home > About Us

About Us



Richard La Pointe: Founder
1944-1989
Vietnam 1964-1968


Cedar Creek Rustic Furniture was founded by Richard La Pointe in 1975 after a few other ventures to make a living.

After being laid off from his position at a local helicopter manufacturer due to a cut back in sales of helicopters at that time. Richard, trying to find a way to feed his growing family, started a motorcycle painting business in his 2 car garage that he built. Again, this didn't pan out due to the bad economy at that time. Still trying to figure out an income for his family, Richard then started his own worm farm, yes a worm farm where he would grow the worms and then sell them for bait. Even though this was a low overhead business and no need to have a lot of employees running around, the worms did not sell very well and Richard was forced to eventually throw the entire worm farm over a hill and was left with the problem of still trying to figure out how to make a living.
So, with only the box tables he grew all these worms in, Richard turned the boxes upside down to make working tables.

Richard owned some land that had white cedar on it, and he thought what if he made some type of furniture with the resources he had on this property he owned. After processing some of the cedar on that property and coming up with a design, Richard made his first cedar log swing. He hand built 3 of them without having a sale for any of the log swings he spent time building.

One, day someone came through and saw the cedar swing that he built and said he would purchase all 3 of the log swings if Richard would deliver them 3 hours south. Of course Richard said yes and along with his wife Betty, Richard drove down the 3 hours and happily delivered the 3 log swings. Richard and his wife Betty were so happy that they sold the swings with all the hard work that went into them, that they sang, (were in the money) all the way home.
This customer that purchased the 3 log swings, ended up calling back and ordering a truckload of the swings along with some other new items Richard came up with. This was the beginning of Cedar Creek Rustic Furniture in 1975.

Richard ran the very successful business for years while employing about 15 year round skilled employees, until 1989. The company went from selling the first 3 log swings, to selling thousands of pieces of log furniture a year and adding new items along the way.

In 1989, Richard passed away due to lung cancer, but the company still moved forward after his death. The company was left to Richards brother Ray, and Richards 2 sons Bob and Joseph. One of the brothers (Bob) sold out soon after and all that was left was Richards brother Ray and Richards son Joseph. Both Ray and Joseph worked the company very successfully together until 2008, when Ray retired from the business giving Joseph the sole ownership of the company.

Joseph worked at the company with his father since he was 14 years old during the summer months while out of school and full time when he graduated from high school. It was just 5 months after graduating when Joseph lost his father Richard to the lung cancer, not giving Joseph much time to work together with his father full time in the family business. But looking back at all the years working during the summer months, really paid off for Joseph when Richards death occurred, with all the experience he received working the summer months. At the time of Richards death, Joseph was already involved and new the furniture manufacturing inside and out. With this experience, the company grew some more and was selling nationally and some in Europe. Now the company is also selling log furniture online directly to customers that do not have one of Cedar Creek Rustic Furniture dealers in their area. The company still handcrafts the same log swing that Richard designed back in 1975 along with many other pieces of log furniture and selling throughout the United States and Europe.

Along with outdoor log furniture items Cedar Creek Rustic Furniture also handcrafts indoor log furniture such as log bed, dresser, tables and nightstands.

Company Info:
Cedar Creek Rustic Furniture
N7247 17.75 Lane
Ingalls, MI 49848
906-753-4072