The great sawmills which developed throughout the South during the latter part of the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries, were of necessity, self supporting and self sustaining entities. The longleaf yellow pine forests extended from Virginia on the East to Texas on the West. The region lacks sufficient waterways, therefore lumbering the piney woods depended on railroads for transporting logs from the forest to the mills and then moving lumber to markets. The mill at Long Leaf, Louisiana operated from 1892 to 1969 and is a rare survivor of that era. Click image for larger view.

The company store, or commissary, was the social center of sawmill towns. This wood frame building was built in 1948 and continued serving as a general store after the mill closed in 1969. It now serves as entrance to the Southern Forest Heritage Museum. An earlier store was lost to fire. Click image for larger view.

About 175 company houses were available for rent by workers. Four of these wood frame houses still remain in Long Leaf. Some houses were dismantled for salvage materials and others were moved intact after the mill ceased operation. The office of the Southern Forest Heritage Museum is located in the six-room house designated as #3 in records which also note its rent was $16.50 a month in 1946. Click image for larger view.

Rough dried lumber was resawn, smoothed, or shaped to ready products for market. The saws, planing and moulding machines were operated by the flat belt and pulley system located under the main floor, and powered by the steam engine in the adjacent power house. Click image for larger view. Photo credit J.W. Meadows, Jr. 1965.

Originally the industrial complex was powered entirely by steam. The large Corliss steam engine with a 12 foot flywheel drove the planer mill machinery until its function was replaced by electric motors in the 1950s. Fuel for the boilers was sawdust and shavings from the planer mill. Click image for larger view.

The huge, wood-burning, steam-powered machine traveled and operated on railroad track. The skidder and crew arrived at a logging site after the trees were cut and trimmed. Workmen stabilized the skidder with guy wires. A wire rope was run into the woods, looped through a pulley sheave secured to a tree stump, and run back to the skidder. Logs were grabbed by tongs attached to the wire rope and then dragged into piles near the tracks. The tongs were hauled back out for the next log by reversing the motion of the wire rope. The skidder was a dangerous machine to work near because of the rough conditions and the great speed of the moving logs. This efficient machine was built in 1919 by Clyde Iron Works, Duluth, Minnesota, and is the only Clyde skidder known to exist. Click image for larger view.

Engine 202 is a 2-6-0, wood-burning, steam locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1913 with construction number 40862 (builders plates removed). It was used to pull log cars along the temporary dummy lines in the woods and along the Red River & Gulf Railroad mainline and onto the sawmill where the loads were dumped into the log pond.Click image for larger view.

Engine 400, type 4-6-0, was built in 1919 by Baldwin Locomotive Works, with construction number 51175 (builders plate removed). It originally burned coal and was later converted to burn oil. It pulled log trains on the 75 miles of Red River & Gulf main lines, making its last run between Lecompte, Louisiana and Long Leaf on December 9, 1952.Click image for larger view.

These huge steam powered machines burned "lighter" pinewood in the fire boxes and operated along the railroad tracks. Empty log cars were pushed behind the loader through the opening created when the wheels were raised and the loader supported by its curved outer legs. Tongs on cables from a wooden boom lifted the logs and placed them on cars. When one log car was filled, it was pushed forward, another car was pulled into loading position and the process repeated. Click image for larger view.

One and two inch thick boards and large dimension timbers were produced in the sawmill at Long Leaf. First is a cutoff saw to cut long logs into shorter lengths, then two band saws to cut logs into lumber and timbers, followed by an edger saw to cut the board edges parallel, and a trimmer saw to cut the boards to desired length. Workers in the saw filing shop on the third floor kept all these blades sharp and repaired. Steam engines located on ground level beneath the sawmill were replaced by large electric motors in 1956. Click image for larger view.

This shop was capable of repairing and maintaining the equipment and the mill at Long Leaf, LA. The shop, to this day, is completely equipped and fully operational and is powered by overhead shafts and flat belts. The shop equipment includes three metal lathes, one of which has a 16 ft. bed, a metal planer, a wheel press, drill presses, a shaper, a boring mill capable of handling train wheels, a bolt threading machine, and in addition, a complete blacksmith shop.Click images for larger view.