LUMBERING IN SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA

A STUDY OF THE INDUSTRY AS A CULTURO-GEOGRAPHIC FACTOR



A Dissertation

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the
Louisiana State University and
Agricultural and Mechanical College
In partial fulfillment of the
Requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

In

The Department of Geography
and Anthropology



By

George Alvin Stokes
A.B., Louisiana State Normal College, 1942
M. S., Louisiana State University, 1949

May 1954

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Completion of this study was possible only through the unvarying courtesy and patience with which the writer was received by the many individuals interviewed. Their interest in the subject made the conversations both pleasant and informative.

The criticisms and suggestions of Dr. Fred H Kniffen and Dr. Robert C. West of Louisiana State University were of much assistance in the course of research and in bringing the work to its final form.

Mr. John C. Guillet of Guillet Studios, Natchitoches, made available to the writer the facilities of his studio, a favor greatly appreciated. Another loan of photographic equipment was very generously made by Mr. Le Roi E. Eversull.

Thanks is expressed to Dr. John S. Kyser and other members of the Department of Social Sciences, Northwestern State College, for their encouragement and advice.

A special word of gratitude must go to the writer’s wife, who did as much as anyone to bring this study to completion.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
LIST OF MAPS
LIST OF COMPANY HOUSE FLOOR PLANS
LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS 
ABSTRACT
       1. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND METHODOLOGY
                Statement of the problem
                Importance of the study
                Selection of an area for study
                Selection of settlements
                Locating the sawmill towns
                Settlement study methods
       II. THE SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA LONGLEAF PINE DISTRICT
      III. HISTORY OF LUMBERING IN LOUISIANA
                Early phase
                Middle phase
                Late phase
      IV. SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA LUMBERING ESTABLISHMENTS
                The sawmill towns
                The lumber camps
                The steam skidders and logging trams
                Summary and conclusions

APPENDIX A: SETTLEMENT STUDIES
         Alco
         Barham
         Bon Ami
         Carson
         Cravens
         Elizabeth
         Fisher
         Fullerton
         Gandy
         Hawthorn
         Kurthwood
         Longville
         Ludington 
         McNary
         Peason
         Pickering
         Slagle
         Victoria
         Ward
         Woodworth

APPENDIX B: GLOSSARY

LIST OF MAPS
PLATE
        I. Louisiana Tree Regions
        II. Southwest Louisiana Longleaf Pine District
        III. Louisiana Log-rafting Routes
        IV. Louisiana Pine Forests - 1881
        V. Louisiana Railroads, 1850; 1870
        VI. Louisiana Railroads, 1885; 1895
        VII. Louisiana Railroads, 1901; 1910
        VIII. Louisiana Railroads, 1920; 1943
        IX. Southwest Louisiana Sawmill Towns, 1895 - 1910
        X. Southwest Louisiana Sawmill Towns, 1911 - 1930
        XI. Southwest Louisiana Sawmill Towns, 1931 - 1950
        XII. Louisiana Sawmills, 1937
        XIII. Sawmill Plant, Fisher, Louisiana
        XIV. Logging Trams, Vernon Parish
        XV. Logging Trams, Allen Parish
        XVI. Logging Trams serving Victoria and Fisher
        XVII. House Type Distribution
        XVIII. Base Map for House Type Distribution
        XIX. Index Map, Southwest Louisiana
        XX. Alco, Vernon Parish
        XXI. Barham, Vernon Parish
        XXII. Bon Ami, Beauregard Parish
        XXXIII. Carson, Beauregard Parish
        XXIV. Cravens, Vernon Parish
        XXV. Elizabeth, Allen Parish
        XXVI. Fisher, Sabine Parish
        XXVII. Fullerton, Vernon Parish
        XXVIII. Gandy, Sabine Parish
        XXIX. Hawthorn, Vernon Parish
        XXX. Kurthwood, Vernon Parish
        XXXI. Longville, Beauregard Parish
        XXXII. Ludington, Beauregard Parish
        XXXIII. McNary, Rapides Parish
        XXXIV. Peason, Sabine Parish
        XXXV. Pickering, Vernon Parish
        XXXVI. Slagle, Vernon Parish
        XXXVII. Victoria, Natchitoches Parish
        XXXVIII. Ward, Allen Parish
        XXXIX. Woodworth, Rapides Parish

LIST OF COMPANY HOUSE FLOOR PLANS
PLAN
       1. Alco pyramidal
       2. Carson bungalow
       3. Elizabeth log-pen
       4. Elizabeth pyramidal
       5. Elizabeth log-pen
       6. Fisher log-pen
       7. Fisher log-pen
       8. Fisher shotgun
       9. Fullerton pyramidal
     10. Gandy pyramidal
     11. Kurthwood pyramidal
     12. Longville pyramidal
     13. Longville bungalow
     14. Ludington pyramidal
     15. McNary pyramidal
     16. Peason pyramidal
     17. Pickering log-pen
     18. Slagle pyramidal
     19. Slagle shotgun
     20. Woodworth pyramidal
     21. Woodworth shotgun

LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS
FIGURE
      1. Pure stand of longleaf pine, Rapides Parish
      2. Company houses at DeRidder
      3. Company houses at Oakdale
      4. Rod engine, Rapides Parish
      5. Shay engine, Rapides Parish
      6. Work car, Rapides Parish
      7. Flat cars, Rapides Parish
      8. Abandoned right-of-way, near Cravens
      9. Abandoned right-of-way, near Alco
    10. Adaptation of pyramidal roof
    11. Modification of pyramidal roof
    12. Pyramidal roofs, Oakdale
    13. Bungalows in Negro quarter, Leesville
    14. Alco Company house
    15. Alco company house
    16. Alco post office
    17. Alco mill pond
    18. View of Alco site
    19. View of Alco site
    20. Barham site
    21. Barham site
    22. Bon Ami site
    23. Bon Ami site
    24. Bon Ami site
    25. Bon Ami site
    26. Carson company house
    27. View of Carson site
    28. Cravens site
    29. Abandoned right-of-way at Cravens
    30. Elizabeth business district
    31. Elizabeth theater
    32. Boarding house, Elizabeth
    33. School, Elizabeth
    34. Methodist Church, Elizabeth
    35. Negro company house, Elizabeth
    36. Company house, Elizabeth
    37. Company house, Elizabeth
    38. Fisher company office building
    39. Fisher commissary
    40. Fisher theater
    41. Fisher Masonic lodge
    42. Fisher boarding house
    43. Fisher boarding house
    44. Fisher church (white)
    45. Fisher church (Negro)
    46. Fisher company house
    47. Fisher company house
    48. Fisher company house
    49. Fisher company house
    50. Fisher school
    51. Fisher mill, pond, and dam
    52. Locomotive at Fisher mill
    53. Fullerton company house
    54. Fullerton business district
    55. Fullerton commissary
    56. Fullerton commissary
    57. Gandy company house
    58. Gandy company house
    59. Gandy company house
    60. Gandy company house
    61. View of Hawthorn site
    62. Kurthwood company house
    63. Kurthwood company office building
    64. Kurthwood machine shop
    65. View of Kurthwood mill site
    66. Longville company house
    67. Longville company house
    68. Longville bank
    69. View of Longville site
    70. Ludington company house
    71. Ludington company house
    72. View of Ludington mill site
    73. View of Ludington pond and dam
    74. McNary company house
    75. McNary company house
    76. McNary company official’s residence
    77. View of McNary site
    78. Peason company house
    79. Peason church
    80. Pickering company house
    81. Pickering dam
    82. Slagle company house
    83. Slagle company house
    84. View of Victoria site
    85. View of Victoria site
    86. Abandoned right-of-way near Ward
    87. Woodworth company house
    88. Woodworth company house
    89. Woodworth church
    90. Woodworth company vault

ABSTRACT
 

This study is an inquiry into the nature, origin, and permanence of cultural forms and patterns peculiar to lumbering in southwest Louisiana. The area covered, one of major forest districts of the state, was originally clothed in longleaf pine. It extends from Many southward to Lake Charles, and its eastern and western boundaries are set by the bottom lands of the Calcasieu and Sabine rivers. Here, as elsewhere in Louisiana, lumbering reached its peak in the early twentieth century. This intensive phase is geographically significant and merits close examination, since culture traits associated with lumbering were then being introduced.

Field study of these forms and patterns included interviews with former mill town residents and visits to active and abandoned company town sites. Information gained by interview was accurate and reliable, and the study could not have been otherwise accomplished. Aerial photographs and maps were examined, and a search made of the available literature.

The lumber industry entered the region from two directions, north and south. The extension of operations southward from Shreveport was part of the general march of the mills from the Lake States toward the Gulf then in progress. Lake Charles had become a major milling center years before, and was the base from which the industry pushed north. As activities were extended along the new railroads, seven landscape elements were carried into the district: bungalows, pyramidal, shotgun, and log-pen houses, mill ponds, logging trams, and the racial division of settlements into “quarters.”

The migration of these elements occurred along varying lines, and their degree of survival has not been uniform. The bungalow, native to French south Louisiana, was carried northward. It has grown in popularity and is universal in its distribution in Louisiana. Pyramidal houses were brought from the north and are now found in all parts of the state. The shotgun house entered the region from both the north and south. Already known in French south Louisiana, it had been adopted by the industry in the north as well. Its popularity is declining, as is that of houses derived from the log cabins native to hill areas.

Mill ponds and logging trams now have almost no economic value, due to changes in the nature of lumbering, and are becoming more obscure. Residential areas in towns where sawmills are still active are commonly divided into quarters today. Company houses in such quarters characteristically exhibit remarkable uniformity of construction.

Cultural changes wrought by lumbering are seen in rural areas, but are of greatest significance in urban centers. No other cultural invasion has matched the impact of that industry. The complex of forms described dominates the southwest Louisiana landscape, and indicates the effectiveness of the industry as a culturo-geographic agent.

CHAPTER I

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND METHODOLOGY

Statement of the Problem: The purpose of this study was to investigate the lumber industry as it has progressed generally in Louisiana, and in particular as it has appeared in the longleaf pine district of southwest Louisiana during the general period 1895-1935, and, through this investigation, to learn what elements and patterns of a cultural nature were introduced, or adopted, and diffused through the area by the industry.

In more detailed terms the problem involved the following major phases:

1) the selection of an area for study;
2) the location of settlements within this area;
3) the study of these settlements;
4) the study of other elements and pattern associated with lumbering;
5) the identification of persistent elements and patterns;
6) the written, photographic, and cartographic presentation of these elements and patterns.

Importance of the Study: Nothing done by man has more drastically altered the natural background or has closely shaped the man-made setting of life in large areas of Louisiana than the brief but vigorous activities of the great lumber companies of the early twentieth century. In many places there remain the original structures of the period - houses, towns, and railroads - and people still use them, people who, in some cases, knew the sawmill towns and the virgin forests of the past. While these structures may be seen, and while people live to tell of them, they should be found, studied, and recorded.

It is felt that the completion of this study, covering one of the major forest districts of Louisiana, will enhance the store of geographic knowledge of the state and contribute toward a more complete understanding of the contemporary complex of cultural forms. Perhaps it will smooth the path of those who may undertake studies of other parts of the state where the work of the lumberman has been no less significant.

Selection of an Area for Study: The area selected for this study was the longleaf pine district of southwest Louisiana as outlined by Brown. (1) His map indicates the forest regions of Louisiana as they originally stood, unchanged by man. As the accompanying maps indicate (Plates I and II), the district chosen included essentially that portion of Louisiana lying between Many, Sabine Parish, to the north, and DeQuincy, Calcasieu Parish, to the south. The western boundary was set by the bottom lands of the Sabine River, while to the east longleaf pine extended roughly to the line Natchitoches-Alexandria-Oberlin.

This study is an investigation of certain man-made elements and patterns, and not an attempt to delineate any particular area or region on a culture-geographic basis; hence the chosen area provides good and distinct natural boundaries for the study.

The district chosen was attractive to lumbermen. It is large, embracing all or parts of nine parishes, and extends across a range of climatic and geologic variation, but holds within its bounds a constant element: the pine forests. All settlements and other establishments fixed here by the lumber industry had one function and objective: the processing of longleaf pine.

Southwest Louisiana was thinly populated prior to the advent of intensive lumbering. The industrial complex of towns and railroads was thrust into largely virgin territory, and was not absorbed by forms and patterns of earlier human occupance. Also, since the conclusion of this phase of industrial activity, there have occurred no major cultural readjustments which might have obscured the contributions of lumbering to the landscape.

Selection of Settlements: All the settlements chosen for consideration in this study were, from the beginning, sawmill towns. Wherever the lumbermen carried on their work of exploitation they set up communities designed for the accomplishment of that task alone. Sometimes they were attached to the fringes of pre-existing settlements, but often they consisted of entirely new urban assemblages. Where the latter were built the area felt the full impact of the cultural invasion. Here the forms related to the industry can be observed as they were originally built, under conditions minimizing the influence of previous human activity.

Lumber camps, (2) smaller communities set up by the mill operators, were not extensively investigated in this study. These tiny settlements near the area of active logging were occupied by woods crews and, occasionally, their families. They were extensions of the parent towns.

The elements of size and population were not considered in selecting settlements for study. All had the same basic function, and in each there were certain fundamental forms. With increasing size these forms became more complex, more elaborate, and more numerous.

The only criterion called into service in settlement selection was their origin: were they, or were they not, established as sawmill towns?

Locating the Sawmill Towns: Although most sawmill towns in the longleaf district of southwest Louisiana came into being less than sixty years ago, their sites have already become difficult to find. Some such towns were probably not found, even after lengthy investigation.

Throughout this portion of the study the knowledge that the lumbering and logging operations of the time were based almost exclusively upon railroad facilities was of primary significance. This being the case, an early and essential step was the examination of maps showing the rail lines of the area at different periods, particularly about 1920.

Some basic sections of the former railway net are still in use. The Kansas City Southern, extending southward from Many to Lake Charles, the Texas and Pacific southeast from Mansfield to Alexandria, and the Missouri Pacific southwestward from Alexandria to Lake Charles were all essentially complete, though perhaps under different names, before the period of intensive logging. They served as a framework on which was built the complex transport net of 1920.

Aerial photographs were of great help in the preliminary search, prior to the beginning of field work. The photos revealed abundant evidence of sites formerly occupied by company towns, such as street patterns, mill ponds, and converging logging railways.

Most readily apparent were the mill ponds, usually distinguishable by their size from the smaller ponds provided for cattle. Field checks, however, indicated that ponds afforded at best an incomplete picture of settlement locations. Some sawmill plants did not include ponds, and broken dams have led to the disappearance of others.

The size and shape of ponds could not always be employed as sure criteria of their origin. Some are large, consisting of stream waters impounded behind earthen dams. The Alco pond, irregular in outline, had a width of some 150 yards and was about 600 yards long. This pond contrasts sharply with the small rectangular pond dug at Woodworth.

The only standard of judgment afforded by the ponds lay in their relation to the railroads. The presence of large artificial ponds in close proximity to rail lines was generally indicative of former mill sites.

Logging trams and spurs appear in many aerial photographs, and served as another guide to former mill town sites. At ground level the old roadbeds are generally obscure, since they were rather impermanent structures for the most part and long in disuse. Frequently these lines were seen to converge toward some central point, which often proved to be an abandoned town site. Traces of former occupation not noted earlier were sometimes revealed through close study of areas of convergence.

Street plans constituted the best indicator of the nature of an abandoned site. Wherever extensive street patterns were noted the assumption was made that the settlement had been a sawmill town. No other activity in the area has led to the abandonment of sizeable population centers. Unfortunately, street patterns were rarely seen, since sites were frequently so overgrown as to be most indistinct.

United States Geological Survey quadrangles were of some assistance in the initial search for mill sites. The map sheets indicated mill ponds and trams, though incompletely.

A loss of sawmill towns in southwest Louisiana, some only tentatively identified as such, was developed from the study of air photos, maps, and available literature. This list, used in conjunction with older maps of the area, made possible the preparation of a map showing the mill town sites.

Final identification of the mill locations was made by questioning persons who had worked and lived in the company settlements. Informants at Fisher, a mill town still active, revealed the names of sawmill towns in considerable numbers, confirming the identity of some already located and naming others which had not be found.

Railway station agents proved to be particularly helpful informants in this regard. Most are quite familiar with the towns along the rail lines where they have been employed.

Periodicals and other literature in general proved to be of very little assistance in locating the mill sites. References to specific localities were scarce, and usually failed to identify a settlement as one established by the lumber industry.

No method of search proved more effective than questioning individuals who had had personal experience with the lumber industry. Most of these people had lived in several sawmill towns, moving from one to another as the fortunes of the industry rose and fell. Field investigation completed and made certain the location and identification of the sawmill towns.

Settlement Study Methods: The acquisition of detailed information concerning the sawmill towns in the area studied involved work along several lines. All had the single aim of creating a picture of each settlement as it appeared during its usually short lifetime.

The elements making up the “picture” of each town included descriptions of the establishments obtained from former inhabitants or publications, maps of the settlements, and photographs of the remaining evidences of habitation found at the town sites. The information obtained from these sources is presented in Appendix A.

This study would have been impossible without the wealth of first-hand information contributed most willingly by the many people interviewed. Other sources were rewarding, but proved wholly inadequate in satisfying the requirements of a close investigation.

For the most part informants were white males who had held jobs in one or more of the towns studied. Numbers of them filled positions of some responsibility, and their recollections were detailed and clear. Other informants included white women and Negroes of both sexes. All had lived in company towns and shared a close association with the lumber industry. They represented a good cross-section of the mill workers and mill town residents, since they included commissary clerks, steel-gang workers, locomotive engineers, quarter-bosses, and others of similarly varied experience in town and forest. In almost every case they seemed to recall life in the sawmill towns with real affection, and were more than willing to talk about a subject which, to them, represented the “good old days.” In fact, it was sometimes difficult to bring an interview to a close. The writer was uniformly treated with courtesy, and was often invited into homes where he had the privilege of examining snapshots, maps, and other items which contributed to his understanding and knowledge of the settlements and their people.

It is felt that the bulk of the information gained by interview is reliable. The fact that a date may have been given incorrectly by a few years, that a name might have been recalled imperfectly, is of little significance in a study of this kind. Several informants were interviewed in connection with each town, and their statements coincided well. When circumstances permitted, the results of interviews were checked against publications, a test which served to enhance the reliability of the former.

Early in the course of this study a check sheet was developed for use during interviews. After a number of conversations with informants it was realized that the amount of information being collected could not be trusted to memory for even short periods. Conversations were often lengthy, and when such detailed inquiries were made, at least the essentials of the material gathered had to be recorded at once. In all some forth specific items were covered. The check sheets served the questioner in another capacity: when answers were indicated in each blank on the form, it was certain that at least the most essential topics had been covered, and that the interview was in large measure complete. A sample check sheet is shown at the end of this chapter.

No objections to the use of check sheets during interviews were experienced. Their necessity was explained to the informants, and in most cases they seemed to prefer the specific questions, especially at the beginning of the interview. The sheets could be filled in with a minimum of distracting movement, a plus sign serving to indicate an affirmative answer, a zero a reply of negative character. The informants, as the interview progressed, were encouraged to assume the conversational lead, which they usually did without reluctance.

A portion of the check sheet was reserved, under the heading “Remarks,” for notes of special interest. With the informant’s aid sketch maps were drawn on the reverse side of the sheets. Later these were compared with air photos and quadrangles, and brought into more correct proportion and orientation.

Maps and aerial photographs served primarily as sources of information supplementary to the interviews. Informants were sometimes able, with these visual aids, to point out such things as street plans, specific building sites, and sections occupied by the various racial groups. Such information was often recorded directly on the map or photo. Maps and air photos were also valuable in providing accurate cartographic basis on which maps of the settlements were reconstructed.

The writer visited each sawmill town site at least twice. Abundant evidence of former settlement was often found, houses, mill foundations, ponds, dams, and other indications of the location and general nature of the community. Fisher and Elizabeth are still in existence, and visits to these active company towns were rewarding.

Knowledge derived from local newspapers, parish histories, and similar sources was negligible compared to that obtained by interview, and was chiefly of value in the preparation of the general history of lumbering in Louisiana which appears in Chapter III.

SAMPLE CHECK SHEET

Town:                                                                                                              Estab.                                                                    Cut out:
Parish:                                                                                                             Photo:                                                                    Quadrangle:
Lbr. Co.                                                                                                           People from:                                                                            
House Types: (white)                                 (Negro)
Railroads:
Forms present      (plus for yes, zero for no)
boarding house     (w)       (N)
school
commissary                                                                                                                                              Remarks
offices
machine shop
mill pond              reserve
corral
barn
hardwood mill
pine mill
planer mill
kilns
lumber yard
standpipe
generators
ice house
depot
church             (w)      (N)
doctor's office
drug store
barber shop
theater
post office
cemetery       (w)      (N)

Other:

mules
oxen
rod engines
shays
steam skidders

                                                                                                                                                            Map on back

CHAPTER II

THE SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA LONGLEAF PINE DISTRICT

That portion of southwest Louisiana originally clothed in longleaf pine presented in its virgin state a view of natural wealth and bounty at least equal to, and in many ways surpassing, anything the lumbermen had seen up to that time. The general physical attributes of that portion of the state, and the qualities of longleaf pine make these attractions obvious.

Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), often called “yellow pine,” has been described as the most important timber tree of southern United States. (1) Its unique combination of properties has made it highly useful to man, and has led to the removal of the southern stands.

This tree grows slowly, gaining perhaps one-quarter inch in diameter yearly, and requiring 250-300 years for the development of a trunk diameter of thirty inches. (2) Wahlenburg states that in the Calcasieu region of Louisiana, and as far north as Vernon and Rapides parishes, old-growth trees averaged about 110 feet in height and twenty inches in diameter. (3) Most of the better logs were cut from trees ranging in age from 150 to 200 years. This land west of the Mississippi was said to have the best timber. (4)

The wood is suited for many uses. It is attractive, and heavy, hard, durable, and strong, and not subject to warping or checking. In old-growth trees from one-half to two-thirds of the trunk are free of limbs, or “clear.” These various qualities make the wood useful for such dissimilar purposes as bridge timbers, ship and railroad-car construction, furniture, siding, and interior house finishing.

Another property of the tree, resulting literally in its downfall, was the nature of the original stands. The longleaf forests were remarkable for their clean, open appearance, almost entirely free of undergrowth. Photographs of virgin longleaf stands indicate that they had the character of well-kept parks (see Figure 1). Forbes mentions that old settlers recounted how buggies could be driven through the woods without difficulty. (5)

                                                                          

Longleaf stands were notably pure, usually eighty percent or more. A stand is considered “pure” if seventy-five percent of the trees in it are of one species. (6) Old-growth pine stands averaged twelve to thirty thousand board feet of lumber per acre over whole townships. (7) Along drainage lines longleaf gave way to narrow strips of other species of pine or hardwoods, usually less than two miles wide. The transition zone from longleaf to other timber types was characteristically very narrow, generally not more than a mile in width. (8) This purity of stand was largely the result of the frequent fires which swept the area, fires set by nature, and more often by man. Fires were small, their frequency precluding the accumulation of forest litter. Crown fires were almost unknown. (9)

Longleaf seedlings are unusually fire resistant, while other species are easily killed. Fires in protected forests are much more damaging to young trees. At Urania a second-growth area containing black jack oak, loblolly, slash, and some longleaf was deliberately burned after a winter rain. Practically all growth was killed, except longleaf seedlings, and this again became the dominant species. (10) Other experiments have indicated the effects of fire on mixed forests, and have even shown that longleaf seedlings will grow more rapidly in burned areas, where plant diseases are less active. (11)

According to Wahlenburg: “In the natural succession of forest types longleaf pine forms a subclimax maintained through frequent burning of the forest floor. Fire furnishes the primary control of distribution of longleaf pine under natural conditions, but its action is largely felt through effects on competing species. (12)

To other desirable qualities this longleaf district joined the advantage of great size. Its boundaries might roughly be represented by the area enclosed within a line drawn from Many southeastward almost to Alexandria, south and west to Oberlin and Lake Charles, west to Vinton, and finally north again to Many. Its dimensions are about ninety miles from north to south, with a maximum width of some sixty-five miles.

Geological conditions here favor the growth of longleaf pine, and facilitate logging activities. Bands of sedimentary rock outcrop in the area, striking generally northeast and dipping gently southward. In the north, around Fisher, small portions of the Jackson and Claiborne groups (Eocene) supported longleaf forests, but the greater forest areas lay southward on successively younger sediments. Penfound notes that: “In general, the Eocene was originally characterized by shortleaf pine, whereas the Oligocene and Miocene were clothed with longleaf pine. The Pleistocene included longleaf pine, hardwoods, and prairie communities. The Recent deposits included neither pine forest nor prairie communities, however.” (13)

According to Brown: “The region was studied in connection with Fisk’s geological map (1938) and a strong correlation was found between the geology and the vegetation. The longleaf pine was on the terrace deposits and absent from the Vicksburg formation …” (14)

Most of this area was well-drained and sandy, conditions which favored the growth of longleaf while adversely affecting competing species. Soil moisture is second only to fire as far as the distribution of longleaf pine is concerned.

Southwest Louisiana presented no topographic breaks which might have constituted real obstacles to logging. The highest ground occurs in southeastern Sabine and northern Vernon parishes, where elevations exceed 450 feet in some places. From these Tertiary hills elevations decrease southward, the 25-foot contour line roughly marking the southern limit of longleaf. In almost all portions the district presents the appearance of low, gently rolling hills. According to Hartman: “This region represents the easiest logging of any in the United States or Canada.” (15)

Most of the section is drained by the Calcasieu with its many tributaries joining it from the north and west. The rail line from Leesville to DeQuincy fairly well marks the drainage divide, the area west of the line generally draining into the Sabine River. Many of the streams are intermittent, and most are easily bridged.

Climate plays no great part in determining the distribution of longleaf pine. (16) The tree is found in regions where mean annual temperatures range from 63 degrees to 73 degrees. (17) More important is rainfall, the tree requiring heavy summer rains to offset moisture losses by evaporation from sandy soils and transpiration during the long growing season.

Such a climate placed no restrictions on logging. There was no cold season severe enough to stop operations, and if heavy rains halted work in one place, it could be temporarily resumed in a better-drained area.

In describing the conditions which attracted the lumber industry to Louisiana, mention should be made of the two other large longleaf pine districts then present in the state. One lay in north Louisiana, centering in Winn, Caldwell, and LaSalle parishes, the other in the Florida parishes of eastern Louisiana.

The lumberman has not been the only foe of longleaf pine. Insects, fungi, and razorback hogs have done great damage. Some land was cleared for farms; some was cut by the early saw millers and by farmers who sold logs to eke out a poor crop. In the south forests were damaged by hurricanes. Forbes mentions “harrican” timber, (18) and extensive stands near Merryville were blown down in 1918. (19)

However, the longleaf district primarily fell victim to large-scale sawmilling. Physical conditions prevalent in the region and the highly desirable qualities of longleaf pine are the reasons why such a vast forest was consumed in so short a time, and indirectly suggest how overwhelming must have been the invasion of the mills.

CHAPTER III

HISTORY OF LUMBERING IN LOUISIANA

The lumber industry in Louisiana has progressed through several stages, the occurrence and duration of each depending upon factors which have influenced the activities of lumbermen.

One such factor was the demand for southern timber. Southern forest resources remained comparatively untouched until forests in the north were exhausted. Before 1880, for the most part, southern forest tracts had been required to fill only local demands. Relatively small quantities of lumber had been shipped outside the region. However, when the forests of the northern states were gone, emphasis shifted southward, and lumbering here entered its most spectacular and destructive phase.

The availability of timber was another factor influential in the progress of lumbering in Louisiana. As long as large tracts of timber remained, the big mills could be supplied in quantity sufficient to keep them operating at top capacity. The mills had to run continuously, or they lost money.

Still a third factor affected lumbering: transportation. For generations practically all timber moved in Louisiana had gone down the waterways of the state.  The method was slow, but the requirements of the time were satisfied.

Only the railroads could move logs fast enough over considerable distances to supply the mills, or carry away the tremendous volume of lumber they produced. In the space of a few years railroads had been built through the great timber regions.

When the forests were so depleted that the large mills were obsolete, the motor truck became the mainstay of Louisiana lumbering as it is today. Small mills could operate on the sparse timber lift, supplied by the mobile and inexpensive truck.

Thus lumbering in Louisiana has experienced three major stages or phases: an early phase, during which demand was small and logging operations were largely confined to areas along streams; a middle phase, the era of intensive logging, when the railroad became the prime mover; and a final stage, the present, dominated by the small portable mill and its servant, the motor truck.

Early Phase: During the initial period of forest exploitation in Louisiana, lumbering, as an industry, was restricted to lands adjacent to waterways. No other means of moving logs in quantity existed.

Mills of the time were small, and at first lumber was produced by whipsawing, often with slave labor. (1) Such mills were scattered widely along the Mississippi and other streams in Louisiana. As early as 1803, however, a steam-powered mill was reportedly built in New Orleans, only to be burned by men who feared that the new machinery would throw them out of work as sawyers. (2)

As settlements were pushed up the principal water-ways of the state, the number of sawmills grew. In their excellent history of Northeast Louisiana the Williamsons mention the establishment of a sawmill near the present northern portion of Monroe about 1795. (3) By 1810, according to the census of that year, there was forty-three sawmills operating in Louisiana. By 1840 this number grew to 139. (4)

One of these early mills was operated on Bayou Boeuf near Alexandria by the Bowie brothers, John, Rezin, and James, in 1815. Oak, ash, and cypress were cut and sent down to Baton Rouge via the Boeuf, Red and Mississippi. (5) Douglas also mentions the presence of sawmills along the streams around Opelousas in 1802.

A steam sawmill was cutting pine and cypress at Point Pleasant in Morehouse Parish in 1840, (6) and in 1868 Captain Billy Robinson built a mill at Shreveport. Timber cut in the fall was rafted down to this mill on the Red River’s spring rises. (7)

In supplying the mills of these early years rafting operations were conducted on a large scale, and the method was applied to the finished products of the mills as well as logs. In the 1880’s eleven million wooden pipe staves were floated down the Ouachita from Columbia in a single tow. (8)

Although pine had been floated down to New Orleans as early as 1850, 1880 is generally regarded as the big year of rafting in southeastern Louisiana. In that year logs cut in eastern Louisiana were towed across Lake Pontchartrain and through the canals to New Orleans mills. Logs were also rafted out of the Red, Little, Black, and other tributaries to the Mississippi. (9)

The streams of southwestern Louisiana served as timber roads feeding some of the first large mills of the state and probably eclipsed other streams in this respect. Around Lake Charles water transport of logs was an old story when mills farther inland were just getting into production.

Logs moved down the streams of southwest Louisiana were of both cypress and longleaf pine. Cypress was cut during the fall and early winter, when the bottom lands were usually dry. The limbs were removed when the timber was cut, and by the time the spring rises came the logs were fairly dry. At the time of cutting roads were cleared through the swamp growth. When the water rose in the spring the logs floated, and were led through the roads to the main stream channels. In other cases, where timber was some distance from the stream, logs were cut and hauled by oxen to a place along the bank where they might be easily rolled off the wagons directly into the channel. These unloading points were called “dumps,” and numbers of them were used continuously for years.

Spring was the active season of log transport along the southwestern streams. The Calcasieu could be counted on for at least one freshet a year, usually in June, and in 1885 a single rise in that river carried between forty and fifty thousand logs southward. So many logs went downstream that many could not be stopped, even though several booms were put across the river. Large numbers of logs went all the way to the Gulf. (10)

The Sabine carried logs southward from Bayou Anacoco to Orange. (11) Old settlers tell of seeing rafts on the Sabine made up entirely of longleaf pine, and up to one and one-half miles long. These were narrow rafts, consisting of several logs bunched together in a small group, with other log groups attached to the rear, forming a chain rather than a solid raft or mass of logs. Some large logs would not float, and were spiked to cross-pieces laid across two floaters, like yokes. Logs went down the Sabine to mills at Deweyville, Orange and other places along the river’s lower reaches.

For the most part river boats were used to move logs for only short distances in southwest Louisiana. A few were operated on the lower Sabine, and others towed logs from the Calcasieu bays across Lake Charles to mills around the lake.

Toward the end of the century lumber production in Louisiana was beginning to grow, although the peak out-put was to be attained only after the railroads came. Some of the first big mills were supplied by water. In 1892 one of the Krause and Managan Lumber Company mills on the lower Calcasieu cut 148,000 board feet of lumber in eleven hours. (12)

The map (Plate III) illustrates, in part, the routes along which logs were rafted in Louisiana. The writer made no effort to cover this subject in its entirety.

                                                                      

At times the waterways of Louisiana harbored some of the more unscrupulous lumbermen active in the South. By 1860 timber stealing on government land was common inland from Atchafalaya Bay and along the Calcasieu and Pearl rivers. Floating sawmills, frequently moved and easily hidden, were operated on the fringes of the forests. On one occasion a Federal Agent seized 100,000 illegally cut logs on Lake Charles. These had been cut by Henry J. Lutcher for the West Indies trade. Before the question of ownership of the logs had been decided in favor of the United States the agent was forced to call for a revenue cutter to patrol the lake and for regular troops to guard the logs. (13)

Timber speculators were among the first to recognize the impending shift of lumbering to the southern states. By 1870 two thirds of Louisiana timber was in the hands of some sixteen organizations. Nathan Bradley of Michigan bought 111,000 acres of land in Louisiana. C. F. Hackley of the same state bought 90,000 acres in the Calcasieu Basin. Henry Lutcher and G. B. Moore bought one and one-half million acres in Louisiana and Texas. (14) A British concern, the North American Land and Timber Company, bought 960,000 acres in southwest Louisiana, helped introduce the first railroad to the area, and brought in settlers from the Midwest. (15)

In spite of the increasing demands of the settlers - 26,500 rails were needed to fence one section of land (16) - the frequent and often deliberately set forest fires, and the ravages of the early lumbermen, the forests of western Louisiana stood almost untouched in 1880. In 1897 the longleaf pines there covered more than two and one-half million acres, although mills around Lake Charles had cut as much as 150 million board feet of lumber in a single year as early as 1892. (17)

In his report of 1884 Sargent observed: “The country between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, now largely supplied with lumber from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, must for building materials soon depend upon the more remote pine forests of the Gulf region or those of the Pacific coast. A great development in the now unimportant lumber-manufacturing interests in these regions may therefore be expected.
The most valuable forests of the state are still almost intact … Pine has also been cut along the Sabine River, from both forks of the Calcasieu, along the Red River in the neighborhood of Alexandria and Shreveport ...” (18)

The census of 1880 ranked Michigan first in lumber production, with 1,649 forest-product establishments, Missouri tenth with 881, Arkansas twenty-ninth with 319. In that year Louisiana had 175 such establishments, employing an average of less than six persons each. (19)

Of special interest in Sargent’s report is his map, (20) reproduced on page 34 of this study, which outlines the then extant pine lands of Louisiana and the areas in which cutting had been extensive. When thus portrayed cartographically, the relationship between the early phase of lumbering and the waterways of Louisiana is quite apparent (Plate IV).
 

                                                                                     

Middle Phase: For decades the growing population of the United States had made increasingly heavy demands on the northern forest areas, from the New England coast westward to the Lake States. When the exhaustion of northern pineries became imminent, the industry moved southward. This shift of emphasis ushered in the middle phase of lumbering in Louisiana. (21)

The newcomers to the southern forests found vast stores of timber awaiting them. In Louisiana the original forest reportedly totaled some twenty-two million acres. (22)

The lumber industry accomplished its southward shift in a remarkably short time. In 1892, when Michigan held top rank in lumber production, Louisiana forests were already feeling the axe, and the all-time high of southern lumber production was reached only fifteen years later. (23)

Railroad expansion was essential to forest exploitation. The logging railroads opened up hitherto remote areas, and became "...a particularly potent foree (sic) (foray?) in the development of the pine forests of the south." (24)

Some of the big mills could demolish the virgin timber of an entire section of land in less than two weeks, and Louisiana railroad mileage grew accordingly. These new roads were essential not only in supplying logs to the mills, but in carrying away their enormous output. By 1904 more than two thousand miles of logging railroads had been built into the southern pineries. (25) Fortier mentions that about 1905 Louisiana had three thousand miles of railroad and 322 miles of logging trams. (26) Most of the track was temporary, but some became part of the permanent rail system. (27)

The expansion of the railroad net in Louisiana and its correlation in time with the period of intensive logging is revealed in the series of maps which appears in the following pages (Plates V, VI, VII, and VIII).

The lumbermen found themselves in a most fortunate situation. Apparently limitless forests of some of the world’s finest timber were at hand, and the demand for forest products was tremendous. The forests themselves were a logger’s dream - clear and open - promising the cheapest and most rapid of logging operations. Weather rarely impeded cutting, (28) and the flow of logs from forest to mill was limited only by the capacity of men and machines.

The price of standing timber, even in the peak years, remained low. Stumpage prices of longleaf went from ten cents a thousand board feet in 1880 to ten dollars a thousand in 1923. (29) After the Missouri Pacific extended its line from Alexandria to Columbia, longleaf in Caldwell Parish sold for less than $3.50 an acre. (30) For the most part landholders were willing to sell. Cutting the pine represented a chance to make money on land that had previously been unproductive.

Labor presented no real problem to the mill operators. Many of the skilled workers and supervisory personnel came south with their employers, but the majority of workers were recruited from among the local inhabitants, both white and Negro. Some Swedes were brought in from the Lake States to work in the lumber camps of Texas and western Louisiana. (31) In a number of instances Mexican laborers were hired, but their presence in the industry was of short duration. Negroes did most of the woods work in central Louisiana, and in north Louisiana much of the common labor was done by white men. (32) For poor hill farmers the choice between the precarious existence of a small farm and a cash wage of $1.50 for an eleven-hour day was not a difficult one. A man could nearly always get a job during the peak years of Louisiana lumbering. If he was fired in the morning he could walk down the track to the next mill and be at work again before dark.

In some instances the mill workers and loggers were not the most desirable elements of the population. Cottingham (33) describes those he knew as the “riff-raff of creation,” and relates that they sometimes took over passenger trains between Alexandria and Columbia. For the most part the men seem to have been superior to this opinion, and as a rule the lumber companies did all they could to promote orderly conduct. Unemployed men were encouraged to “move on,” this policy being applied with special vigor in the case of Negroes.

Occasionally the sawmill towns were rather crude, but the settlements were not “shanty-towns.” (34) The lumber companies made definite attempts to advance their good reputation and make them attractive. In many cases the facilities and conveniences enjoyed by the inhabitants were superior to anything seen in the older native communities. Schools, medical care, the privilege of buying at the company commissary, electric lights and running water, and other advantages made life rather pleasant.

Good wages and attractive living conditions drew men to the sawmills until in 1909 lumbering in Louisiana was second only to the manufacture of sugar and molasses as an industry. According to the census of 1910 the former employed in this state 46,072 people, with an annual production valued at $62,838,000.

Lake Charles became the first great center of logging and lumber production in Louisiana. Sargent states in his 1884 report: “… principal point of lumber manufacturing is Saint (sic) Charles, in Calcasieu Parish, on the southern border of the western pine forest. Lumber manufactured here is shipped east and west by rail, and in small schooners to Mexican and West Indian ports.”(35)

The Perkins and Miller Lumber Company came into existence in 1873, and in 1932 was still operating as the Krause and Managan Lumber Company, Limited. Mills cut at Westlake from 1882 until 1920. In spite of their dependence upon water transport, these mills were large-scale operations, and steam skidders were in use as early as 1898. (36)

Operations farther from waterways waited for the railroads. When the Kansas City Southern began extending its line southward from Shreveport, new lands were opened to the logger. Earlier, the Texas and Pacific traversed the longleaf district of western Louisiana, and a mill began operating at Victoria in 1882. (37) However, the boom was delayed until the Kansas City Southern was completed southward in 1897. This provided a north-south axis from which lines could be extended east and west. Soon a series of lateral lines linked the K. C. S. with north-south lines through Alexandria.

Bolinger, two and one-half miles south of Plain Dealing, was formerly Martin Switch, site of the Martin Lumber Company mills, cutting ten to twelve million board feet yearly. Frost Lumber Industries, Inc., had mills at Trout and Spring Hill. Other companies had mills at Allentown and at Zwolle, the latter built in 1896. (38) The Fisher mill has run continuously since 1899, (39) and was the first large plant in Sabine Parish. (40)

Elsewhere the story was much the same. Before 1900 a mill was in operation at Ruddock, St. John the Baptist Parish, and from Garyville more than 87,000 car-loads of lumber were shipped out between 1903 and 1931.

The latter mill cut one hundred thousand board feet daily, and between 1915 and 1922 had payrolls averaging $1,062,000 annually. (41) Land around Dry Prong, Grant Parish, was being logged in 1916, (42) and at Urania in 1910. (43) Thirty-eight thousand acres of timber were cut near Merryville, northwestern Beauregard Parish, between 1910 and 1921, steam skidders being brought in to remove fallen trees more rapidly following the hurricane of 1918. (44)

Calcasieu Parish mills had largely “cut out” - halted work due to timber depletion - by 1925, (45) but farther north the end came some years later. Vernon Parish reached its peak of production in 1920, with eleven big mills in operation, some of which ran night and day for years. In a twenty-year span the assessed value of Vernon Parish timber dropped from forty to six million dollars. By 1938 seventy percent of the parish had been clear-cut, or stripped of its timber, and natural forest regeneration had been largely ruined by the steam skidders, which destroyed uncut trees. (46) Under the widely held “cut out and get out” policy the intensive phase of Louisiana lumbering could not last long. Southern pine production declined steadily after 1916, and the industry shifted it center of activity to the west coast. (47)

The rapidity with which big-time limbering had entered Louisiana was matched by the speed of its departure. The logging railroads were taken up, the mills dismantled, and the towns deserted. Along one railroad line in western Louisiana twenty-three sawmills, each cutting more than 100,000 board feet of lumber a day, went out of existence in five years. (48) Southwest Louisiana was left with the largest tract of clear-cut land west of the Mississippi: one million acres. (49) The big mills needed a continuous flow of logs for profitable operation, and only smaller mills could subsist on the restricted forest areas that remained. (50)

The decline in lumbering was attended by shifts of population. Between 1920 and 1930 Allen, Beauregard, and Vernon Parishes lost almost ten thousand people, while in the same decade Calcasieu gained almost nine thousand. (51) In Vernon and Beauregard, sixteen large mills, each with towns of at least one thousand, had cut out and were abandoned by 1933. (52) A few of the larger mills continued to operate, as at Fisher, Zimmerman, and Longleaf. Others turned to another product, as at Elizabeth, but most of them have disappeared. The recent closing of the large Louisiana Central Lumber Company mill at Clarks, Caldwell Parish, indicates the general trend of the large mill toward decline. (53) This mill reportedly manufactured over a billion board feet of lumber during its fifty years of operation. Until recently the company employed some 600 men at Clarks.

The series of maps on the pages immediately following show the transitory nature of the sawmill towns of western Louisiana, and illustrate how rapidly this phase of forest exploitation has passed. The towns shown are those selected for this study (Plates IX, X, XI).
 

                                                                                                                            

Last Phase: The virtual exhaustion of the virgin forests of the South did not herald the extinction of the lumber industry, as some had anticipated. Recent years have witnessed the emergence of the small portable sawmill as the major producer of lumber. These “peckerwood” mills operate profitably since the scattered forest remnants can be reached by road and highway, and can provide the small volume of logs required by each mill.

The small sawmill is not a newcomer to the industrial scene. Mills of low capacity have long been active in this country. Of some 50,000 sawmills operating in the United States in 1909, seventy-five percent cut less than a million board feet yearly.

The significant change in lumbering in recent years has been in the growing volume of lumber produced by lesser plants relative to the output of the large mills.

The increasing importance of small sawmills as lumber producers was noted by Boisfontaine in 1934. (54) He observed that as early as 1929 more than half our total pine production was cut by small mills. At that time the average portable mill employed three or four men and ran about seventy-five days a year. Occasionally it became cheaper to move the mill to the timber, especially if the move insured a timber supply sufficient for a six-month's run.

In 1934 there were approximately 8,000 sawmills operating in Louisiana, southern Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, east Texas, southwest Oklahoma, southern South Carolina, southeast Missouri, and western Tennessee. Of the pine mills in this group, ninety-two percent had a capacity of less than 20,000 board feet of lumber daily. (55) Many of the larger mills of a decade or two earlier could have produced ten times that volume.

Louisiana had 557 sawmills in 1937, but only ten percent of them had a daily capacity of more than 40,000 board feet. It should be noted that these small mills combined to produce, in that same year, no less than sixty-eight percent of Louisiana’s lumber. (56) Cruikshank reported 95 sawmills active in southwest Louisiana in 1937, 72 of them turning out less than 40,000 board feet daily. (57)

The accompanying map of Louisiana pine and hardwood mill locations (Plate XII) clearly shows the numerical superiority of the small sawmill. Of 496 mills listed by the Louisiana Forestry Commission as active in the state in 1946, only sixty-nine cut more than five million board feet yearly. The Fullerton plant turned out that amount in less than a month.