100+ Years of Service. Decades more to come.
When most people think about Montana, they imagine the fantastic mountains, the cattle, the old western towns, or the many historic sites and Native American cultures that span the surface of the treasure state. Enmeshed in the rich landscapes and history just northwest of Anaconda, Montana, is a growing company called KLM Contracting.
KLM Contracting (for Kanduch + Lorengo + Mitchell) is a family-owned logging and excavation company and the leader in southwest Montana for providing excavation, logging, forest management, septic and roadwork services. With 100+ years of logging and forest management and 30+ years experience in excavation, KLM Contracting provides a streamlined set of services for landowners, developers, and community members alike. We serve all of southwest Montana, including our nearby communities of Anaconda, Philipsburg, Georgetown Lake and Butte.
KLM Contracting, formed in 2022 through a merger of three long standing Anaconda families, is the culmination of a century of experience and a dedication to the community and the land.
The Lorengos came to the Anaconda Valley in the late 1930s from Italy. The family began logging in the 1960s and worked on the opposite side of the mountain from the Kanduchs. The Lorengos formed their own company in the 1970s and continued it as a family-focused operation until the companies merged. In the 1970-80s, Hammy Mitchell and Bryan Lorengo became fast friends, often playing in the woods with the Lorengo family west of Anaconda. A wildfire brought the Lorengo and Kanduch families together as firefighting teams and provided an opportunity to work closely to preserve the landscape.
The owners of KLM, Karl & Kevin Kanduch (cousins), Bryan Lorengo, and Harold Mitchell, have collectively known each other for the majority of their lives. Though life briefly took them in different directions, as college, careers and families pulled them away, their deep love of the area and the industry remained. Mitchell left the area due to lack of job opportunities in Anaconda. Moved to Vegas and began working in excavation. Through working for large corporations and smaller companies, Mitchell realized his passion for helping family-owned companies and building more one-on-one relationships with employees and the owners.
In 2022, the partners had all returned to the industry and to their hometowns in the Anaconda-Philipsburg area. The four (future) partners met to discuss a potential merger, seated in a corner booth at the Ranch Bar, along the scenic Highway 1 in Anaconda. Together, they developed a plan to build on the experience, skills, and relationships built through their shared history and form a collaborative company.
The partners wanted to build a company where employees loved to work, where the community and customers were provided only the best care, and where they could keep doing what they loved, working the land through logging and 'dirt' work.
Since that time, without any marketing at all, the group has grown significantly. With multiple generations working side by side, and numerous talented recruits from the area ready to work, KLM quickly became the premier company for logging, forest management and excavation. They maintain the importance of service-focused work and sustainability while actively incorporating the experience of the elders and bring innovation to the industry.
With the significant growth of their first two years as a company, KLM built a New Shop in 2024, revitalizing property that was originally owned by the Anaconda Company and adding a firewood processing facility with the help of the Wood Innovations grants. KLM Contracting looks for new ways to improve the industry while preserving the history, the quality and the sustainability of the industry.
With 100+ years of knowledge and experience to support them, KLM Contracting works today to build a community of passionate and focused individuals.
The first of the three families to move to the area, the Kanduchs came to the Anaconda valley in the 1920s and began logging. In 1930, the Kanduchs owned and operated a sawmill and general store in the foothills of the Anaconda mountains and worked to support loggers in the area, sometimes taking supplies by horse-drawn wagon into the mountains to those in need. Though the mill closed in the 1970s, the horse barn and surrounding buildings still stand. The family still owns tools once used in the pre-mechanical era of logging, where horses were the primary machinery.
