Just what kind of museum is the Southern Forest Heritage Museum?

It is not exactly a forest museum. We do not exhibit different forest types or show an ancient forest. But we do give basic information about the southern forest, and have three areas of our property where visitors can examine trees, shrubs, and ornamental plants which are identified with signs.

It is not exactly a forestry museum. We do not primarily teach people about what foresters do and how they do it. But we do present basic information about forestry and about why forest management is important.

It is not a railroad museum, although we have locomotives, tracks, and a motorcar ride. The railroad is only one element of the operation of the lumber mill. Similarly, we are riot a steampower museum, though we have a high abundance of steam machinery. Again, it’s not our focus.

How about a sawmill museum? That’s getting closer. The sawmill, after all, was the reason Long Leaf appears on a map. But we have 33 other buildings besides the sawmill. Some large, some small, all working together.

Sometimes a collection of old buildings with associated artifacts is called an open-air
museum, like Williamsburg in Virginia, or Greenfield Village in Michigan. But in Long
Leaf, there are no reconstructed buildings, or buildings moved in from somewhere else.
This is the “real thing.”

The best way to describe our property is a historic site. We manage and exhibit to the public a large collection of buildings, structures, and artifacts that have remained here since it was a working sawmill complex. Its integrity is its greatest asset. Our buildings don’t just contain artifacts, they are artifacts.

But, in the commissary, we have also installed exhibits on many other aspects of the southern forest, both historical and modern. So besides being a historic site, in a greater sense we are also a museum of the heritage of the southern forest. How ‘bout that!