The bustling pace of 20th century business often slows to a pleasant walk in Idaho. In the state's sylvan surroundings, many businessmen duck-hunt before work, water-ski after work, and fret less about growth charts than about the potato crop. It seems an unlikely setting for a modern, aggressive company. But that is just what Idaho has in the Boise Cascade Corp., which has grown in only six years into a major enterprise and a magnet for Eastern-trained executives.
Born from the merger of three sleepy sawmill companies, Boise Cascade is now a diversified producer of paper, lumber and building materials, with...