Here are the best places I have found. Some require a bit of a drive but by golly they are great and worth the drive.
Grange Hall Hardwoods, Plum City, WI. 715-647-4544,
Ask for Matt or Amy, they own the mill. This is a sawmill with a kiln and with a small retail shop attached to the storage buildings. They are about 10 miles or so East of Ellsworth, WI (the cheese curd capital, really!) on Route 10. They are also exactly South of Spring Valley so you can go to Schmitt Timber and Grange Hall Hardwoods in one trip. Call for directions and to find out what they have in stock. Great prices (the best) on all kinds of 4/4 and 8/4 rough and planed wood. Cherry does not last long, but they do get some in. Rock bottom prices like $3.50 bd ft for 8/4 cherry when they have it. $2.25 for 4/4 #1 common cherry.
Schmitt Timber, Spring Valley, WI. 715-778-5533.
This also is a sawmill with their own kiln, and all their lumber is stacked in various barns all over the site. Call to make sure they have in stock what you are looking for. Take the "Woodville" exit off of route 94 in Wisconsin. It is also Exit number 24. Head South about 6 miles and you will find it on the right. Great place but again their cherry sells very fast. They do have some 4/4 #1 common in stock, but I prefer their select or better grade of cherry. Nice stuff, but it sold out within about a week. All kinds of other wood available. They have buttloads of oak and other stuff.Click Here for a map.
Northern Hardwoods, Cannon Falls, MN. 507-263-5088.
Located about 30-40 minutes South of St. Paul off of route 52. Great place with some pretty good prices. This is just a retail outfit that does their own drying. These guys carry all the common hardwoods and their prices are good to excellent. You can't pick and sort too much but there really is no need to. Their wood is stacked 3 pallets high and whatever you want will be at the bottom of the stack so they will have to forklift off the top two pallets for you. Then they stand there while you get what you want. They will fax you a price list whereas the other places typically don't do that (prices fluxuate). Their 4/4 select/better prices are a little high compared to the places listed above, but they have lots of everything in stock. They have some of the best and nicest looking 5/4 and 8/4 cherry that I have seen. Best looking stacks of wood I have seen at a supplier. They take care of their stock.Click Here for a map.
Youngblood Lumber, 612-789-3521, Central Avenue, Minneapolis.
This is **THE** place for lumber. Huge piles of every dimension of lumber imaginable. All kinds of exotics. Prices are very high for their retail customers. If you join the Minnesota Woodworker's Guild (they have a web page somewhere) then you can get wholesale prices. Wholesale prices are good but not great. You will pay about $1.50 -$2.00 more per board foot as compared to the above listed places, HOWEVER, this place is worth going to just to look at what they have. Imagine 6 and 8" thick by 36" wide by 16' long slabs of mahogany. These folks will have 5000+ bd ft of select cherry in stock at any one time. They leave you along if you want so you can pick and choose all you want. They also carry every type, kind, variety of veneer plywood under the sun. They also carry baltic birch plywood in thicknesses up to 5/8".Click Here for a map.
Click Here for their web site.
Lake Elmo Hardwoods, Beautiful Down-Town Lake Elmo, MN. 651-777-1431.
Actually you will have to go to their retail division that is called Elmo's Lumber and Plywood. This is a place that dries hundreds of thousands of board feet of lumber per year in kilns the size of North Dakota. They turn most of the wood they dry into mouldings and such. In fact if you get there at the right times you can see them filling railroad cars with moulding to be shipped all over the US. They are located along the railroad tracks in the center of town. Their retail division is a Trustworthy Hardware store located in an old building just North of the railroad tracks. Only folks that buy a bazillion bd ft of lumber can get a wholesale account with these guys. Their retail place is well stocked with beautiful planed lumber but their prices are sky high. Still cheaper than Home Depot or Menard's, but sky high nonetheless. Great prices on Baltic Birch Plywood up to 3/4" thickness. They are the only guys to carry that thickness of BB that I am aware of.Click Here for a map.
I hope this helps. Email me with any questions. If ya get really stuck maybe I will part with some of my stash, for a price of course.
Brook