Back in the early 80’s CEDAR-AL's founder Glen Orr was taking a lunch break in a lumber yard when he saw a deer rolling in a pile of cedar chips. He asked his boss if he knew why the deer was doing this. He learned that deer instinctively know cedar oil keeps off tics and fleas and are known to roll on fallen cedar trees for this reason.
Glen extracted cedar oil from the Northwestern Red Cedar tree shavings from a steam distiller made from an old hot water heater. He worked with a chemist from Seattle to blend the extracted oil with water to make it safe to use on humans and pets, while keeping it strong enough to be an effective natural bug repellent. The chemist also blended the cedar oil in a natural baby shampoo formula and it became as popular as the cedar oil. In 1985 CEDAR-AL was born.
The same lumber yard and laboratory still work together to provide CEDAR-AL customers with the same cedar oil they have come to love. Eddie Bauer stocked CEDAR-AL cedar oil and pet shampoo for over a decade, until they became a clothier. His partner, Roberto Martinez, continues to keep Glen's dream alive to this day. CEDAR-AL remained dormant until 2005 when Roberto married Elise Crawford. She worked alongside him to nurture CEDAR-AL back to life. Since then, a new label was created for CEDAR-AL, two new products came on board and an online store was created.