Port Austin Level and Tool will be closing its doors after 75 years of operation.

After 75 years, Port Austin Level and Tool Manufacturer Company has announced that it will be closing its doors forever.

According to company leader Jennifer Upthegrove, the closure is due to strains put on the company by the COVID-19 pandemic. They have been unable to find new employees, and supply chain issues have prevented them from getting materials and supplies.

"It's been very hard to try to maintain for the last two years," she said.

The company was first started by her great grandfather, John Upthegrove Sr., after World War II. He was originally a commercial fisherman, but since the train cars that transported his loads weren't union loaded, they were shoved off to the side and the fish rotted. This led him to decide to go into tool manufacturing instead, pooling his resources with two business partners to open the business.

What started as a one-room factory grew over the years into a 30,000-square-foot facility as a stock-held corporation.

The factory is one of the few in the U.S. that manufactures levels for construction work. It is also one of the few, if not the last, to make them out of solid wood, rather than the laminate or plastics that other companies regularly use instead.

Once Level and Tool closes, there won't be a single factory left in Port Austin, with time and economics claiming them one by one over the years. It was a source of employment and income for the village, even while those other buildings shut down.

"At one point in time, our factory employed more than 14% of the population of Port Austin," Upthegrove recalled.

The company and its workers have enjoyed a sense of community in Port Austin for the last 75 years, in a relationship of mutual generosity. Level and Tool has donated to silent auctions and fundraisers in the village, while the community has helped it by spreading the word about sales and whatever interesting news came out of the factory.

"We're thankful for the community's support, the support of all of our customers," Upthegrove said. "This is a very emotional time for us, so we're very grateful for all the years of patronage from all our customers."