Bogalusa is a city in Washington Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 13,365 at the 2000 census. It is the principal city of the Bogalusa Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Washington Parish and is also part of the larger New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area.
Bogalusa was the home of B.B. "Sixty" Rayburn, Sr. (1916-2008), a 44-year member of the Louisiana State Senate, a confidant of the Long dynasty, and a favorite of organized labor. Because of his power and longevity, Rayburn was often called "the Dean" of the Louisiana Senate. His son, B.B. "Benny" Rayburn, Jr. (1944-2006), served as sheriff of Washington Parish.
Tom Colten, later the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, was the business manger of the Bogalusa Daily News from 1948 until his relocation in 1955 to Minden in Webster Parish, where he served two terms as mayor.
Economy
Bogalusa was founded by the Goodyears of Buffalo, New York, who started the Great Southern Lumber Company in 1906. The saw mill was the largest saw mill in the world at that time and for many years. Bogalusa is famous for its reforestation program.
In 1938, the Goodyears had ended its lumber operations at the Great Southern Lumber Company and sold the paper mill operations. The current owner is the Temple-Inland Corporation the area largest employer.
Today, Bogalusa's economy revolves around the lumber mill and paper, as well as agriculture.
History
The Great Southern Lumber Company (1906-1938) mill was opened here in 1906, and the Goodyear (Frank Henry Goodyear and Charles Waterhouse Goodyear) interests of New York built a city around it that same year to house workers for their sawmill. William H. Sullivan, the sawmill manager for the Goodyears, was town boss when the city was built (1906-1907) and then mayor until he died shortly after the mill closing in 1938. The city, built from nothing in less than a year, with several hotels, a YMCA and YWCA, churches of all faiths, and houses for the workers and supervisors, was called the Magic City due to its rapid construction. Bogalusa was incorporated as a city on July 4, 1914. At its peak, the city had over 30,000 residents, and the Great Southern Lumber Company's sprawling sawmill produced over 1,000,000 board feet (2400 m³) of lumber a year. The sawmill closed in 1938, but was replaced as the city's main industry by a paper mill and a chemical plant run by Crown-Zellerbach. An attempt to keep the sawmill open with California redwood proved too costly and the mill was closed.
Bogalusa was the birthplace of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa and of New Orleans piano legend Professor Longhair.
In the mid-1960s, Bogalusa was a center of activity for the Deacons for Defense and Justice.
In 1995 a railroad tank car imploded at Gaylord Chemical Corporation releasing nitrogen tetroxide and forced the evacuation of about 3,000 people within a one mile (1.6 km) radius. Residents say "the sky turned orange" as a result. Emergency rooms filled with about 4,000 people who complained of burning eyes, skin, and lungs. Dozens of lawsuits were filed against Gaylord Chemical and were finally settled in May of 2005, with compensation checks issued to around 20,000 people involved in the accident.
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit this city with winds of about 125 mph (201 km/h) downing numerous trees and power lines. Many buildings in Bogalusa received damage from falling trees, and several were destroyed. Most of the houses, businesses, and other buildings suffered roof damage from the storm's ferocious winds.
Bogalusa Story
by
C. W. GOODYEAR
1950
PRIVATELY PRINTED
BUFFALO, NEW YORK
See Pictures below:
GREAT SOUTHERN LUMBER COMPANY
ELLICOTT SQUARE
BUFFALO, N. Y.
March 8, 1905
Mr. J. D. Lacey, President
J. D. Lacey & Co.
Hibernia Bank Bldg.
New Orleans, La.
Dear Jim:
Complying with your request of February 26th, we enclose herewith by insured, registered mail our check in the amount of $1,250,000.00 to reimburse you for the more recent purchase of timberlands which you have made as our agent.
My brother, Frank, writes from his winter home on Jekyll Island, where he is making his annual visit to get away from the wretched weather which we have up here at this time of the year, that he was fortunate in meeting James J. Hill, who with George F. Baker, J. P. Morgan and other financiers were wont to gather in the clubhouse in the late afternoons for their customary drinks of Scotch and soda. Apparently Mr. Hill was very much interested in our plans for building a railroad from Lake Pontchartrain to Jackson, Mississippi. Advice from an empire builder like James J. Hill, who has achieved such outstanding success in developing the Northwest, did not go unheeded, with the result that we have decided to construct our railroad with long tangents straight up the Pearl River Valley through the heart of our timberlands. During your wanderings in Washington and St. Tammany Parishes you may have run across the surveying crew which has already started to lay out the line. We have organized a separate company to build the railroad with the corporate name of Crescent City Construction Company. Mr. J. F. Coleman of New Orleans has been engaged as chief engineer in charge of the work.
We are anxious to go South as soon as possible to select a site for the sawmill and town. On account of the Mississippi laws, which we find are definitely unfavorable to corporations, we have about reached the conclusion that a location in Louisiana would be preferable. You wrote that it will probably take four more months to perfect all of the titles to the lands which we have bought so I suggest we arrange to meet you in the Deep South next September.
I hope that your supply of alligator skin bags is holding out and that the stallion, which you bought in Kentucky, has come up to your expectations.
Sincerely yours,
C. W. GOODYEAR
Vice-President
It had taken a man like Lacey to visualize and call attention to the possibilities of converting these vast forest lands of Louisiana and Mississippi into gold above ground. The opportune time to interest Northern capital in such an enterprise seemed to present itself at the turn of the twentieth century when several lumbermen in the North were approaching the end of their sawmill operations due to the depletion of standing timber.
Lacey started his business career as a traveling salesman for a manufacturer of embalming fluids. He realized that this had its merits as a dependable livelihood because the demand did not fluctuate as was often the case with other commodities and its use was not likely to be adversely affected by business depressions, but he was not satisfied for long in making only enough money to meet his living expenses.
What young Lacey saw primarily while traveling the countryside with his horse and buggy were trees. Between the towns, where he sold his wares to funeral parlors, there were large areas of virgin-pine timber most of the way on both sides of the road. He himself did not have sufficient capital to start a lumber business, but it occurred to him that he might purchase timberlands as agent for prospective buyers. After familiarizing himself with several large tracts of timber, he inserted an advertisement in the American Lumberman: "J. D. Lacey, Timber Estimator and Agent for Timberlands." Soon after it appeared, he was on his way North to see the Goodyears and others.
With the meager savings from his salary and commissions as a salesman of embalming fluids, Lacey was able to tide himself over until he could close several timber transactions. During the years that followed, he accumulated considerable wealth as agent in buying enormous blocks of timber in the South and on the Pacific Coast. But he never lost his knack of being at ease with prince or pauper -- in a cutaway coat and top hat at some affair of state or sitting on a split-rail fence in his shirtsleeves negotiating a land deal with a native of Washington Parish. He neither tried to pull himself up with his own bootstraps nor to lower himself to the level of those who were below his own social stratum.
Charles W. Goodyear House - Table of Contents
The following newspaper story - published in 1941 - is printed verbatim.
Alterations to be few; Panels kept
By Nat Gorham
A Fabulous period in Buffalo's history is typified by the Goodyear mansion, 888 Delaware Ave., which was taken over this week by the Hospital Service Corporation and the Western New York Medical plan.
From the time it was completed in 1902 at a cost of $500,000 the mansion was the scene of many interesting social functions. The large living room or, "hall," its walls covered with a rich red Italian brocade and with pilasters and cove mouldings of exquisitely carved American walnut, has enclosed receptions for royalty and dances for debutantes and their beaux. Soon it will be the "underwriting and service" room of the corporation. Instead of string orchestras there will be tapping typewriters and the hum of busy people.
The lavish study used by Charles W. Goodyear, who built the home, will be the office of the director and the delicate, charming oval breakfast room will be the office of the comptroller. The board will meet where once the Goodyears kept their books and spent their evenings.
Prince's Chair Remains
Mr. Goodyear owned timber tracts In Louisiana, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania. So extensive were his holdings that if one tract were shorn and replanted, it would have been reforested by the time the lumber jacks had harvested the others. The wood in the Goodyear house is naturally the finest that could have been supplied. Beautiful walnut paneling fills the library and hallways, as well as the living room.
The dining room was furnished with a table, sideboard, and 12 chairs of solid Honduras mahogany, said to have cost $7000. Descendants of Mr. Goodyear own the two chairs in which the King and Queen of Belgium sat in 1919, but the one for Prince Leopold, with his name carved in the back, remains in the house.
One door in the dining room opens into the breakfast room. Another leads onto the loggia commanding a spacious view of the gardens nearby and the lawns beyond. Through still another, one reaches the palm room.
Over the mantle of the marble fireplace in the main hall is a six-foot marble relief called "Life" by K. Bitter, which won first prize at the St. Louis exposition. Weighing two tons, it is placed on a foundation extending to the cellar. It was bought at the recent sale of Goodyear pieces, but the purchaser never took it away because experts found they would have had to tear down the house to get it out
On Five Levels
In the butler's pantry, presided over for years by Alfred Taylor, are two long German silver sinks and rinsing trays. The kitchen was distinguished by a fine large stove with an overhanging metal hood and by an electric refrigerator opening into the kitchen and also into a hall back of the kitchen. It was large enough to hold a side of beef as well as other large stores.
The house has five levels: basement, ground floor, first bedroom floor, second bedroom floor, and attic. Through three of these floors, from the ground to the second bedroom floors, spirals a graceful staircase with a wrought-iron balustrade and an oak hand rail. A heavy iron chain drops 40 feet through the well and at the end is a polychrome chandelier.
There are nine bedrooms on the two bedroom floors, each with a luxurious marble fireplace and each with a marble bathroom. A sewing room, 20 by 20 feet, has flowered wallpaper, a fireplace, and a built-in closet with wash basins.
Mrs. Goodyear, who died last September, occupied the bedroom in the southeast corner of the second floor and Mr. Goodyear, who died 28 years ago, the room adjoining. Both are beautiful paneled with solid mahogany.
In Blue Brocade
Two of the most beautiful rooms of the house were those occupied by Mrs. Arnold B. Watson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Goodyear. The large sitting room of her apartment was covered with a light blue brocade and the woodwork painted with 10 or 12 coats of ivory enamel.
There are four servants' bedrooms on the second floor, five on the third, and four over the garage. In the attic is a 40-foot cedar chest for storing Oriental rugs and several cedar rooms for linens. An elevator extends through the five levels. In the basement are two boilers for the steam heat and a coal bin holding 65 tons.
The main floor is supported by steel "I" beams resting on giant stone and concrete pillars. On the beams is a layer of two inches of concrete and on this a rough wood flooring and finally the hardwood. Experts believe this floor is as strong as a factory floor.
With the exception of the kitchen and pantries and a few of the bedroom partitions, the house will not be changed by the hospital corporation. It expects to move in May 1.
Taylor Caldwell (Mrs. Marcus Reback), Buffalo author, was inspired to write her forthcoming book, "The Strong City," while attending the sale of furnishings in the house.
The Sullivan Home, built in 1907 in Bogalusa, Louisiana, is historically significant for its association with William Henry Sullivan. Known in his time as "the father of Bogalusa," Sullivan, as general manager of the Great Southern Lumber Company's Bogalusa operations, was in complete charge of the construction of the plant and entire town of Bogalusa. Sullivan held authority in Bogalusa as the head of its lumber camp until he became the town's mayor in 1914 - an office he kept until his death in 1929. By 1929, under Sullivan's direction, the Great Southern Lumber Company had built a company-owned town of 10,000 people. At the time of his death William Sullivan was Vice President and General Manager of the Great Southern Lumber Company, Executive Vice President of the Bogalusa Paper Company, and a Director of the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad. His house is significant in three areas--architecture, industry, and local history.
Set on a large wooded lot, the house is a symmetric, two-and-a-half-story frame edifice, which combines elements from the Colonial Revival and Queen Anne styles. The Colonial Revival characteristics may primarily be viewed from the house's exterior; these characteristics include its three-bay colossal order gallery, the front door, the ballroom, Palladian window motif, and dormers.
The most architecturally significant Queen Anne feature of the house is its rigid, mannered style. This is exemplary of Queen Anne styled homes built at the turn of the century and expresses the trend to move away from the irregularity of the larger, older Queen Anne houses. The workers in the town came to refer to the home as "Official Quarters." It is located in a section of town called "Little Buffalo" or "Buffalotown" since it was the residential district where many of the company officials who had come from Buffalo, New York, had their homes. The Sullivan House was the largest and grandest of the homes in this section of town.
The Sullivan House is located at 223 S. Border Dr., just off Ave F (Hwy 1075) in Bogalusa. The house is privately owned, and not open to the public.
Established in 1819, Washington Parish, Louisiana was formed from the northern half of St. Tammany Parish.
Bogalusa was founded by the GOODYEAR's (Frank Henry GOODYEAR and Charles Waterhouse GOODYEAR), William Henry SULLIVAN, and others who erected a sawmill on the Bogue Lusa Creek where it flows into the Pearl River in 1906.
Bogalusa is the only incorporated city in Washington Parish, Louisiana. Incorporated in July 4, 1914. Franklinton is the County seat.
Bogalusa is where the Great Southern Lumber Company Sawmill (1908 -1938), Bogalusa Paper Company (1918 -1937), New Orleans Great Northern Railroad and related ventures were undertaken.
Bogalusa has been called the "Magic City of the Deep South", the "Magic City of the Pinelands," and the "Green Empire." Bo·ga·lu·sa [ bg lss ] or bOgulOO'su.
Washington Parish is in the "Florida Parishes" of Louisiana.
The population of Bogalusa in 2000 was 13,635. The population of Washington Parish in 2000 was 43,926. (The population of Bogalusa in 1990 was 14,280. The population of Zip Code 70427 in 1990 was 18,938. The population of Washington Parish in 1990 was 43,185.)
Who cut down the 1st tree in Bogalusa?
This is my transcription of his obituary:
James Madison McLENDON / McCLENDON (b: May 11, 1848 - d: Aug 26, 1929; buried in Adams Cemetery) married Elizabeth "Sissy," ADAMS. He was 81 years old.
James Madison McLendon, the man who chopped down the first pine tree on the site of what is now the thriving city of Bogalusa, has succumbed to Father Time. He passed away at the home of his daughter, Miss Mary McLendon, in Adamstown, Monday morning, at the ripe old age of 81.
"Uncle Jimmy," as he was affectionately known, had been in splendid health for a person of his age, until a few months ago, when he began failing, going into a gradual decline.
There was no ceremony when he felled the first tree in what was then a virgin forest, extending in every direction for miles distant. He was one of the first employees engaged by the vanguard of the Great Southern Lumber Company, to clear the site for what was destined to be the largest saw mill in the world, and where a modern city of 16,000 citizens, and where several large industries are now located, and it fell to him to hew down the first tree. That was in the year 1905, and it was not until thirteen years later, he informed the late Col. W. H. Sullivan he had the ax in his possession and would gladly present it to him.
It was at the dedication of the City Hall, May 11, 1918, the axe was presented to Col. Sullivan, who in turn presented it to the city, where it now reposes in a glass case in the City Hall. On that occasion, "Uncle Jimmie" was presented with a $50 Liberty Bond by several of his friends. On numerous occasions since that date he has been a guest of honor at public functions, where he took pleasure in reminiscing over the pioneer days of the parish, and in his part in clearing out the wilderness of pine forests.
Although born in Georgia, he had resided in Mississippi and Louisiana since his early youth, and had been a resident of this section of the country for almost forty years. Until old age forced his retirement, he had engaged in the timber industry, and was for many years employed by the Great Southern Lumber Company.
He was a member of the Baptist Church, and of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to the Picayune lodge. This organization had charge of the funeral at the grave, Tuesday afternoon, and was assisted by the Rev. A. C. King, the deceased's pastor for many years; Rev. T. A. Bennett, a friend of long standing, and Rev. S. C. Rushing. Interment was in Adams Cemetery.
He is survived by his widow and one daughter, Miss Mary McLendon, with whom he and his wife were making their home at the time of his death.
A large number of floral offerings, and the messages of condolence and visits to his late residence by persons in all walks of life, gave mute, but conclusive evidence of the esteem in which he was held in the community where he had long resided.
THE STORY OF BOGALUSA
One familiar with lumbering operations throughout the United States is quite apt to regard a “sawmill town” as some thing in the nature of a temporary investment — an investment that must be liquidated during the life of the available timber supply. But the story of Bogalusa, Louisiana, is one of an entirely different aspect. Bogalusa is young and lusty and growing, not merely with faith in the years to come, but, with the certainty of increasing prosperity. That is a matter of business calculation based on the length of time it takes a pine tree to grow.
BOGALUSA is a booming town. It is not fair to call it a “boom town,” for one is never certain about the future of a boom town; it may prove like the lustiness of youth that passes. Bogalusa is young and lusty and growing, not merely with faith in the years to come, but with certainty of increasing prosperity. That is a matter of business calculation, based on the length of time it takes a pine tree to grow.
Bogalusa is only 14 years old. The people like to remind the visitor that only 14 years ago there was nothing here but the potential wealth of a pine forest. They tell with pride that as recently as 1906 Col. W. H. Sullivan, with visions of a brand-new city in his head, pitched his tent on a sandy flat among the yellow pines be. side the sluggish stream called Bogalusa, where is now the beautiful Goodyear Park, surrounded by handsome buildings, a Y. M. C. A., a Y. W. C. A., beautiful stores, and a splendid office building for the Great Southern Lumber Co.’s group of allied industries.
The people of Bogalusa never write a sentence that does not begin with “Bogalusa,” which might indicate conceit, but they have something to be vain over. They are inveterate boosters, yet the rarest person to be found in this swiftly growing city of 16,000 is a real estate agent, in which respect the, Bogalusa booster sharply contrasts with his cousin in Los Angeles, Cal. It is jocularly said that all Southern California is for sale, but all Bogalusa is not for sale. Apparently no one so fortunate as to have established himself in Bogalusa can be bought off; he has come to stay. It is possible, nevertheless, to buy lots in Bogalusa and land in Washington parish surrounding it, because this was all virgin wilderness 14 years ago, and 16,000 people cannot fill up so much open land. When the first settlers came they counted on making money out of a logging camp, which was supposed to have a life of some 40 years. After a time, however, new ideas were conceived and a new policy was adopted. The sawmill was to be supplemented by a pulp mill to consume the waste, instead of burning it up, and the lands were to be reforested to sustain the pulp mill as a permanent enterprise. This meant an altogether different kind of an opportunity from that of feeding off a temporary lumbering community, and the town leaped forward in population.
Bogalusa's Industrial Enterprises.
The city has two banks, with total combined deposits of $1,600,000; 125 mercantile houses, purchasing over $2,200,000 worth of goods yearly; there is a 40-ton ice plant, with a cold- storage capacity of 500 tons; there is a creamery and a big modern stock farm developed by the Bogue Chitto Stock Farm Co., which has acquired 11,000 acres of cut-over land from the Great Southern Lumber Co. The Colonial Creosoting Plant has works for treating 200,000 feet of timber per diem, employing 75workmen, and the paving brick plant has a capacity of 5000 yards daily, sufficient to pave a half mile of street. The main shops of the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad are situated at Bogalusa, affording employment for 300 men. There is a Bogalusa veneer company having a daily capacity of 35,000 feet. Baer & Thayer have a new hardwood mill at Bogalusa with a capacity of 40,000 feet, managed by W. S. Thayer. There is one large high-class hotel, the Pine Tree Inn, with bathing pond, modern golf links, and all the attractions for tourists who know the virtue of the piney woods in the sand belt north of Lake Pontchartrain, in Louisiana, one of the most phenomenally healthy spots in the United States. There are five other hotels, a news paper, The Bogalusa Enterprise; a Bogalusa building and loan association paying 10 per cent on installment stock and 8 per cent on full-paid stock; a chamber of commerce, of which B. D. Talley is president and Precey Lindsley secretary. The yearly payrolls of the Bogalusa enterprises aggregate $4,000,000. There is reason for the boastful boosting habit of the Bogalusan, who seems to think that Louisiana is in Bogalusa and that New Orleans is a suburb.
Paper Plant to Rise.
If so much has been accomplished under the stimulus of the existing enterprises and of faith in the policy of the Goodyear family and the far-seeing Colonel Sullivan, there surely will be a tremendous acceleration to the growth of Bogalusa with the construction of the new 600-ton paper mill that has just been authorized by the company, This will mean employment for an other 2000 men at least in the town and surrounding country. Within the next two years the population will pass the 20,000 mark. A city of that size affords opportunity for a large farming community, and the influence of the local demand for foodstuffs is already seen in the rapid development of farms and in the building of modern farmhouses.
It must be said that only a portion of the land in Washington parish is suitable for agriculture. Most of it consists of lean, sandy soils, admirably adapted to the growing of pine trees, but deficient in the qualities needed for general farm crops. The rich lands are exceedingly good for yams, sweet potatoes, turnips, beets, cabbage and most garden truck, moderately good for corn, excellent for many kinds of grasses, and well adapted for raising sugar cane. An association has been formed for warehousing the local output of cane syrup, on which advances are made by the local banks. Owing to the abundance of succulent grasses and the absolutely open winters, with pasturage available throughout the year, dairying is becoming an important industry. At the present time Alfred C. Anderson, of the Bureau of Soils of the United States Department of Agriculture, is engaged in studying the soils in Washington parish, around Bogalusa, which will clearly establish the character and adaptability of every section in the whole area. This will be of great assistance to prospective settlers. Lands shown by this soil survey to be best adapted to tree-growing will be so classified, and will then enjoy a special reduced and fixed valuation under the Louisiana statutes for purposes of taxation as an incentive to reforestation. Good cleared farm lands are now available at $50 per acre, on which the appraised valuation would be about $15. The rate of taxation in the country is 15mills and in the City of Bogalusa 25 mills per hundred dollars.
Civic Improvement a Source of Pride.
There are few communities of the size of Bogalusa in the South that enjoy so many public advantages. The streets are well maintained, and everywhere provided with cement sidewalks. The school system is sustained on a high level of efficiency, and there are six fine new grammar schools, accommodating 2200 white pupils and having 52white teachers. A new model high school containing many new ideas in school construction was completed this spring. It is a two- story brick building, 250 feet long by 89 feet wide, magnificently lighted, and cost, with equipment, $300,000. The city maintains a paid fire department, with two automobile pumping and chemical engines, six hose reels, in addition to which there is an emergency high-pressure pumping engine connected with the city water-supply system to assist in firefighting.
Although the site of the city originally belonged to the Great Southern Lumber Co., and homes were built for the employees, the houses and lots are being sold as fast as anyone desires to buy them. As a result, the city has largely ceased to be a “company town,” but is essentially a community of freeholders. An interesting feature of the place is that the population is not huddled around a common center. It is scattered over an area embracing 16 square miles. Around the Pine Tree Inn is a district of beautiful modern bungalows costing from $4000 to $10,000 each. These are equipped with all the latest conveniences. Building is going on at a rapid rate. The company boasts that of the 16,000,000 feet of lumber cut from the town site, 15,000,000 were used in building the city.
Bogalusa has started right in another respect. There is a sewerage system, to which all the houses in the town are connected, and the water supply comes from artesian flowing wells that penetrate a gravel stratum at a depth of 300 to 1100 feet.
The significance of all these conditions is that Bogalusa is a comfortable and attractive place for those who appreciate the advantages of civilization. It bears no resemblance to the usual type of lumber camp. The best grade of men can come here with their families to enjoy life in a normal and proper manner, and not merely to make a living. The result is that the best kind of men do come, the superior kind who could make a good living anywhere, and who remain here because they find it a good place to live in, where they can bring up their children in a twentieth-century environment, surrounded by good people in a wholesome Christian atmosphere — for there are more churches than movie theaters in Bogalusa.
Welfare Work on Big Scale.
Stress has been laid on the city of Bogalusa because it is the chief glory of the Great Southern Lumber Co. Many enterprises make as much money as this one, and many of them have expended as much in “welfare” work, but few can point to an achievement so unique as this, where a civic spirit has been promoted and where private initiative has been given actual opportunity to develop. The betterments in this ideal little city have been the outgrowth of co-operation among the citizens. It is a free community, working out its own destinies, and not dependent on the largess of a corporation. To create such a city is something far surpassing conventional welfare work. Credit for having conceived the plan of converting a lumber camp into a self-governing city is due to W. H. Sullivan, its designer and builder, and to the liberal-mindedness of F. H. and C. W. Goodyear, the founders, who approved and aided with wise counsel and generosity in the initial expenditures by the company to make the idea effective.
The foundation on which all this that we see today has been built was the Great Southern Lumber Co., that bought a great area of virgin pine land in Louisiana and Mississippi in 1905. It is a curious circumstance that the sawmill design was drawn before the site was selected. In a flat country, it was not necessary to consider the lay of the land, for it all lay alike. This mill was designed to cut 1,000,000 feet of lumber daily. It has often exceeded that figure. Even today, with a depressed market, it is cutting over 600,000 feet per diem. Thus it stands out as the largest sawmill in the world. The site chosen was near the mouth of the creek known as Bogalusa, one and a half miles from Pearl River.
The New Orleans Great Northern Railway Co. was organized as an adjunct to the enterprise. This was not a logging road, but a well-equipped interstate line, extending from Slidell, La., to Jackson, Miss. From Slidell the Great Northern trains use the Southern Railway tracks into New Orleans. The capital invested in this road is $12,000,000. The capital stock of the Great Southern Lumber Co. is $10,000,000 and of the Bogalusa Paper Co. $2,000,000. The logging roads in the Louisiana tract for bringing logs to the mill belong to the lumber company, but the logs from the Mississippi forests owned by the Great Southern are delivered to the New Or leans Great Northern Railway for transportation to Bogalusa. In the Louisiana area of forest land the company now operates 15 miles of rail toad, and it normally lays and takes up one mile of logging road daily. A standard all-steel type of flat cars, made by the American Car & Foundry Co. of St. Louis, Mo., are employed. There are 19 Shay type locomotives in the logging road equipment, built by the Lima Machine Co., Lima. Ohio. These are provided with adequate spark arresters. Great care is exercised to prevent forest fires. To supply the mill, 60 acres of timber land are cut daily. The average number of logs hauled to the mill each day amounts to 7200.
The Great Sawmill at Bogalusa.
Aside from a few novel features, the main interest in the sawmill plant is its magnitude. A mill that actually saws more than a million feet of lumber daily is sui generis (Transcriber's note: Sui generis - The Latin term for unique.). It spreads over 160 acres of ground, including the lumber yard. In 1917 it shipped 9148 cars of lumber, 329 cars of lath and 29 cars of shingles, being a daily average of 32 cars. The B and better grades shipped in that year amounted to 46.31 per cent of the total sales. In this were included timbers to the extent of 29 per cent. For transporting lumber in the plant there is a system of 50 miles of train track, in addition to which the trucks of lumber to be delivered to the drying yards are picked up and conveyed by a monorail system with an electric carriage, made by the Pawling & Harnischfeger Co., of Milwaukee, Wis., taking a load of 10,000 pounds. In the planing mill are 28 machines and five resaw machines. A box factory adjacent to the planing mill, utilizing exclusively waste material, turns out 50 carloads of shook per month. This factory is equipped with two resaws, three planers, six cut-off saws, eight ripsaws, one Ferris-wheel trimmer, two nailing machines, two splitting machines and one variety saw. The lath, shingle and stave mills are operated on waste material also. In spite of this extensive utilization of waste in making minor products, the only fuel employed for generating power at the plant comes from mill refuse. Considering that waste is used in the manufacture of paper pulp boxes, lath, shingles, staves and for developing power, it will be apparent that the waste burner is not a very active part of the Great Southern equipment. It is retained as an emergency relief in case some part of the waste-utilization system becomes temporarily embarrassed.
General View of Plant of The Bogalusa Paper Co., at Bogalusa, LouisianaThe Logging Railroad System
The logging main line railroad delivers the logs to an unloading dock, where they are dumped into a log pond 27 acres in extent. No mechanical means for handling the logs to the log chain conveyor is so cheap, so flexible and so efficient as to float them in the old-fashioned way. The mill is provided with three of these conveyors, two of which deliver to the customary steam feed log carriage and single band saw. The third conveyor, however, brings the logs to a special twin band saw, the only one In the South, and designed exclusively for this mill, to take care of the small top logs, and made adjustable to cut the log into three-inch, six-inch or 12-inch widths as desired. It is electrically driven, each saw of the pair being provided with an independent 50 horsepower motor. The band saws used by the Great Southern Lumber Co. come from F. C. Atkins & Company, of Indianapolis, Ind.; Henry Disston & Sons, Philadelphia, Pa., and from the Simonds Manufacturing Co., Fitchburg, Mass. The standard used here is 14 inches wide, of No. 14-gauge steel, with 1 3/4-inch tooth space, the total length of each saw being 14 feet. They are worked down to a minimum of 10 inches. The life of each saw in the grade of lumber cut at Bogalusa is four months, the driven speed being 9800 feet per minute.
In addition to the band saws, there are two gang saws, with 32 saws each, one made by the Diamond Iron Works, Minneapolis, Minn., and also three resaws. The usual system of conveyers is employed, the sorting being done at the end of the mill. When cutting 600,000 feet per day of 20 hours, as at present, five sorters are required on each 10-hour shift. Some of these are white and some colored. The accuracy of judgment, combined with the necessary prompt ness of decision to prevent being overwhelmed by the steady stream of lumber coming forward, was one of the most significant things in connection with the workmen to be seen at this plant.
Dipping Lumber to Prevent Stain.
At the end of the mill the stream of lumber is diverted at right angles into two opposite courses, one going to truck loaders for transmission to the stockyards for open air drying. On the way every piece is sent through a mechanical dipping machine, where the lumber, carried transversely on the conveyor chains, is depressed by rollers into a solution tank, and then sent on to the trucks, There is thus a continuous stream of lumber being immersed in the tank without stoppage of the conveyor chains. The object of dipping is to coat the lumber with alkali that will prevent sap staining and bluing, which ordinarily happen to lumber stacked in the open for air-drying. The effect is extra ordinary. Lumber stored in the open for months remains brilliantly yellow and lustrous, apparently even brighter than when fresh from the saw. Formerly a solution of plain soda ash (carbonate of soda, Na2CO3) was used, but recently a better mixture has been adopted, consisting of 45 per cent sodium bicarbonate (HNaCO3) and 55 per cent sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) the formula being to dissolve one pound of the mixture, in the proportion given, in one gallon of water. The covering strength per 1000 feet board measure is five gallons of the solution. The soda compounds used are what is known as the “Zenith Brand,” put up by Church & Dwight, New York.
The dipped lumber is loaded upon trucks, which are taken to the loading terminal of the monorail system previously mentioned, operated by two men, an engineer and a clutch man, and the whole car with its load is taken and deposited on any desired track in the stockyard. There are now 20,000,000 feet of lumber on hand in these yards, which is below the average. The total stock now carried, both in yards and sheds, is 35,000,000 feet, which is 10,000,000 below normal. (Written December 1920. — Editor.)
How Second Stream is Handled.
The second stream of lumber diverted by the sorters at the end of the mill is sent to drying kilns. It goes first to a single sorter, who sorts as to length and thickness only, tumbling each board into its appropriate slot in the edge conveyor, a sorter takes it to the proper side conveyor, which delivers it to the stacking machine, that loads the trucks for carrying it into the kiln. There are three batteries of eight kilns each, making 24 in all, each holding 15 truck loads, the truckload being 3500 feet. The kilns are steam heated, with steam at 110 to 120 pounds. The lumber is dried 72 hours, bringing it down from a green weight of 4400 pounds to a dry weight of 3400 pounds. From the kilns the dry lumber is transported to the stock sheds. which occupy an area of five acres.
There is some waste, as well as all of the saw dust, going to the boiler room from the sawmill proper, but the larger part - comes from the planning mill, consisting of shavings, dust and “hog material” from a half-inch to two inches long. The planning mill is nearly a half a mile from the boiler room, so the pneumatic transmission of all this material, averaging as high as 21 tons per hour, is of special interest. The refuse is collected by a group of ordinary cyclone exhausters, which deliver it to a feed bin above the pulsator. It comes to this bin in a 36- inch galvanized steel pipe; it leaves the pulsator on its long journey to the boiler plant in a 11-inch steel pipe. The pulsator is a mechanism that automatically feeds the refuse rythmically (Transcriber's note: (sic) "rythmically" should be "rhythmically.") into the path of air puffs into which the apparatus converts the steady stream of air that is delivered under a pressure of four pounds per square inch. The blower and pulsator together consume 500 horsepower belted from an electric motor. The capacity of this equipment is 700 pounds of refuse per minute. The amount actually delivered is variable, ranging from 400 pounds per minute upward.
The Power Plant.
The power plant offers no novel features, but is ably managed by J. H. Friend, the mechanical engineer of the plant. It contains 14 boilers, mostly of the Heine type with a combined ratingof 4800 horsepower, but 7000 horsepower are actually developed. The power to all parts of the plant is transmitted electrically, and all machines except the four main band saws, two resaws and one gang saw, including the machinery in the planing mill and box factory, are driven by in dependent electric motors. Electric power is developed by two 28x48-inch Corliss engines, direct connected to 500-kilowatt 2300 3-phase alternators; one 18x36-inch Corliss engine, direct connected to a 250-kilowatt 2300 3-phase alternator; one 1000-kilowatt low-pressure steam turbine, and one 2000-kilowatt low-pressure steam turbine. The exhaust steam for operating the low-pressure turbines comes from the Corliss engines and from all steam-using appliances in the sawmill.
The Great Southern Lumber Company OfficeThe sawmill proper is operated from a 40x60- inch Corliss engine, with steam at 140 pounds, by a unique reverse-drive leather belt that passes first over a weighted tension pulley, laps back over the first lineshaft with 180 degrees of contact; thence around the second lineshaft with 180 degrees of contact, and thence over a tightener idler to the flywheel of the engine. The diameter of the flywheel pulley is 264 inches with a 74-inch face, making 14 revolutions per minute. The driven pulleys on the two line shafts are each 60 inches diameter by 77 inches face, making 325 revolutions per minute. The belt itself is 3-ply, 72 inches wide, 238 feet long, travels 5114 feet per minute and transmits from 1890 to 2000 horsepower. The belt is inspected daily during the two hours of rest in the mill, and is thoroughly overhauled once each week. The belt was originally made by E. A. Usina, a belt expert of New Orleans, and has given great satisfaction.
The construction of a belt of such proportions that will show uniform tension across its width and cover the full number of degrees of contact on both sides uniformly while driven at full speed is an achievement in power transmission that merits attention. Two belts were manufactured, one being held in reserve in case of emergency. The choicest cuts from 540 hides were required for each belt, the leather being tanned in the South. The amount of cement used in each belt was 380 pounds. The company maintains a special belt shop, under the direction of E. R. Belton, for repair work and the manufacture of narrower widths. It is fully equipped, including a toggle belt press. On the 72-inch belt the top ply is made of two pieces, the bottom ply of three pieces and the middle of seven pieces. Only the highest grade of leather is employed, and all stock with defects or knife cuts is rejected.
The sawmill plant employs 1750 men, and 1100 men are needed at the logging camps, of which there are five, to keep the supply of timber coming forward. The superintendent of the sawmill is L. F. Guerre.
New Civic Enterprises Planned.
This mammoth plant was the basis that. rendered possible the building of the attractive city of Bogalusa. The extension of the business to paper making will now give to this city not only permanency, but the assurance of continued growth through diversified manufacturing that will be sure to come. The present mayor, Col. W. Sullivan, who is the vice- president and general manager both of the sawmill and the paper interests centered here, is filled with enthusiasm to develop all the latent possibilities of the region, and he looks forward to rapid development of the resources of the district. The latest proposal is to erect a canning factory, which will be built before next summer, as an encouragement for the farmers to raise tomatoes, beans and other vegetables for which the soil and climate are propitious. The culture of Satsuma oranges is also being stimulated, this fruit attaining a large size at Bogalusa, making an acceptable fancy winter orange for northern markets. The thing, however, that will make Bogalusa famous and will bring inquiring students from all over the country, is the mammoth reforestation program, which is showing the whole South how to redeem its cut-over lands and to convert the wilderness, where logging has swept away the timber, into centers of industry for the making of paper. This important work is more extensively covered in the latter part of this article.
When the Great Southern Lumber Co. began its development of Louisiana and Mississippi pine timber and proceeded to create a modern city around a mammoth sawmill in the virgin forest of Washington parish, Louisiana, the capitalist interested in the venture had no plans beyond the production of lumber. The stumpage available in the 550,000 acres of land was so great — running into 10 figures expressed in terms of board feet — that it was evident that no less than 40 years would be required to strip the timber. Consequently, there was time in which to develop a comfortable city. The vision of this was clear in the mind of Col. W. H. Sullivan when J. M. Clendon (Transcriber's note: Should be James Madison McLENDON or McCLENDON) cut down the first tree on the site of Bogalusa and made room for the tents of the little company of pioneer lumbermen in 1906.
At that time few men cast a thought about the rapid destruction of the southern forests, and fewer had conceived a remedy. With characteristic American recklessness everyone was the cutting timber and speeding up production, content to make the most of these rich natural resources while they lasted. Very consciously the lumbermen, though dealing with a living and renewable basic material for their industry, treated it, nevertheless, as a wasting asset, as if it were an unrenewable mineral deposit. The copper miner cannot help himself, because a ton of ore once extracted is gone forever. New veins may be growing somewhere else for future generations of men, but no more copper will refill the fissure of a depleted deposit. Nature seals the channels after the metalliferous solutions have done their work. But nature does not destroy the conditions that product a forest, and the lumbermen have come to realize that they are dealing with a renewable and continuing asset.
Sawmill of Great Southern Lumber Company at Bogalusa, LouisianaPulp Mill Supplants Waste Burner.
Before this was recognized as an economic possibility, before it was made certain that the lumbermen could become tree farmers and make money out of it, a first means of salvaging valuable material and thereby lessening the crime of waste of which all lumber producers had been guilty was resorted to. This was to manufacture paper. The pulp mill was substituted for the waste burner; at least, that is what happened in Bogalusa. The benefit was even more far-reaching; it extended into the logging operations, and made it possible to salvage the tops and limb and thus to clean up the debris that ordinarily strews the ground and gives to a freshly cut over area an aspect of desolation and wanton destruction. The next lesson learned was that the pulp mill could profit by the spontaneous growth of young pine on favored cut-over land when the trees were no more than eight to 10 years old. Out of this grew concern for the protection of the new growth. Experience with the pulp mills brings swiftly into strong relief the entire problem of reforestation in its broad aspects.
The Bogalusa Paper Co., which is a subsidiary of the Great Southern Lumber Company, operates the largest pulp mill in the South, but it was not the pioneer in the production of paper from the resinous woods of the southern states. The yellow Pine Paper Co. experimented with the caustic soda process at Orange, Texas about 1910. The initial efforts were not commercially successful, but that company is now operating a plant that employs the sulphate method and yields satisfactory results.
Sulphate Process Used
The first large scale plant to introduce the sulphate process for pulping the southern pine wood was erected by the Halifax Paper Co. at Roanoke Rapids, N. C., in 1908. With no precedents of successful operation to follow, it had to struggle against infinite difficulties of detail. The first unequivocal financial success with the process in this country was achieved by the Southern Paper Co. at Moss Point, Miss., with a plant which commenced operating in 1913. The pulp department was under the management of R. H. Laftman, who has since been placed in charge of the mill of the Bogalusa Paper Co. The latter plant, which now has a capacity of 65 tons of pulp per diem, with a total capacity of finished board of about 120 tons, began producing in 1918. With new equipment, now in process of installation, the capacity of finished board was increased to 195 tons daily in May, 1921.
With the complete success of the Bogalusa Paper Co. in producing high-grade Kraft pulp on a large scale from the resinous woods of the South, duplicating the financial success of the Southern Paper Co., the era of southern paper making from the longleaf, loblolly and other native species is fully inaugurated. These have dissipated completely and finally the doubts formerly expressed concerning the feasibility of pulping such material. Since the Bogalusa plant has finally established the successful routine of its sulphate pulp process it has made more money on the capital invested than the great million — foot sawmill and forests for its supply that largely furnish the paper mill with raw material.
Other Pulp Plants in South.
Other plants in the South, outside of those already mentioned, which are successfully pursuing the same line of treatment are: The Atlantic Pulp & Paper Co., Savannah, Ga.; the Pine Tree Paper Co., Pine Tree, Ga.; the Chesapeake Corporation, West Point, Va.; the E-Z Opener Bag Co., Breithwaite, La.; a new 50-ton pulp mill now being built at Bastrop, La., by the Kansas City Fiber Box Co., and a 100-ton plant under construction at Hopewell, Va., by Humble & Ross. These are only the forerunners of many more. Pulp mills will become a feature of lumbering operations throughout the South, and the industry promises within the next few years to rival in magnitude the development now seen in Michigan, New York and New England. At the present time only Kraft paper and board are manufactured from southern pine. The resinous species do not lend themselves to the production of book papers as economically as other woods. Nevertheless, it is possible to manufacture bleached papers from pulp obtained by cooking coniferous wood by the sulphate process. This is a matter for future development. The addition of black gum, tupelo and other gum woods holds out a promise of successfully making good strong book papers in the South. An elaborate report on the utilization of wood wastes, made in 1914 by the firm of Arthur D. Little, Inc., of Boston for the Great Southern Lumber Co. showed that book papers made from the pine and gum woods on the lands of the company in Louisiana had an average bursting ratio of 0.39, a breaking strength of 3825 meters and a folding strength of six double folds. This is superior to the standard specifications of the United States government printing office for machine finished No. 1 print paper. The tendency to harshness of the paper in which the longleaf yellow pine pulp is used as an ingredient may be overcome by increasing the percentage of gum pulp. The gum trees, which are generally referred to as “hardwoods” among southern lumbermen, grow abundantly along the lower lands bordering the water courses, and are self-seeders, readily renewing their growth. Dr. Little successfully produced in his experimental paper mill a great variety of Kraft papers, bleached and colored wrapping papers, bond papers, book papers and parchment, using raw materials from the Bogalusa area. No attempt, however, has yet been made by the Bogalusa Paper Co. to manufacture the highest-class papers. The mill yields Kraft pulp, mainly used in the production of container board, in conjunction with waste paper brought in from outside.
Great Southern Hotel that Later Became The Pine Tree Inn
Lobby Of Pine Tree Inn
Pine Tree Inn at Bogalusa
Houses erected for employees which can either be rented or purchasedWaste Paper Provides Tonnage.
The shipment to Bogalusa of this waste paper has effected a great economy in the operation of the entire group of industries. A disadvantage keenly felt in lumbering operations arises from the fact that the cars for shipping the lumber have to come in empty, as there is usually no local demand to provide freight both ways. The New Orleans Great Northern Railroad, built in conjunction with the Great Southern Lumber Co.’s enterprise, now enjoys the benefit of freight in both directions on account of the large consumption of waste paper in the manufacture of container board. This, with the out-going container board, yields a revenue amounting to 12 per cent of the total net earnings of that road.
Colonial HotelThe crude material employed in the pulp mill at Bogalusa consists of the following: (1) Wood purchased from outside sources convenient to the line of the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad. Anything over four inches diameter is accepted, cut into four-foot lengths. Wood larger than 10 inches is required to be split. (2) Pulp wood cut from the tops and limbs of trees in the logging operations of the company. The same limits as to diameter and length apply. The normal recovery of such material from these lands amount to eight cords per acre. (3) Slabs picked out from the burner-conveyor at the saw mill. This averages about 26 cords per 100,000 feet of finished lumber produced. (4) Pulp wood picked out from the cull log splitters. This (Transcriber's note: (sic) "This" should be "These.") logs are those that have fallen in the woods and source of supply is variable as to quality. Cull are unsuitable for saw logs. These are brought to the mill to be used for fuel, but after being cut into two-foot lengths and split in the “splitter,” a considerable proportion of good pulp wood can be sorted from them.
Elizabeth Sullivan Memorial HospitalOther raw materials, in addition to the fuel for power, are “salt cake,” which is neutral sodium sulphate, quicklime, soda ash and alum (aluminum sulphate), and rosin for sizing. Waste paper constitutes a large item in the manufacture of container boards, the total consumed in the mill being about 70 tons per diem. The pulp production, which is now 65 tons, will be in creased shortly to 90 tons per diem.
Outline of Method Used.
The demonstrated importance of the sulphate process as now perfected and applied to the pulping of southern resinous woods makes it worth while to present a brief outline of the method employed at Bogalusa.
The Nurse's HomeThe slabs from the sawmill, the round and split pulp wood from the logging operations and the split cull logs, which have adherent bark, are delivered by a chain conveyor to the barking machine. This consists of a cylindrical tumbling frame set with the axis horizontal and rotated by rack and pinion. The cylinder is made up of channel beams bolted horizontally to the inside of the frame with a space of 1 1/2 inches between each beam, the channels being turned outward. The friction of the pieces of wood against each other in tumbling breaks and abrades the bark, which falls through the interstices between the channel beams. The machine is 60 feet long by 20 feet diameter. It requires 100 horsepower for its operation, and passes 15 cords of wood per hour. The barked wood meets a stream of clean mill waste on its way to the chippers. There are two disc clippers, each set with four knives that make 3/4-inch cuts. The capacity of each clipper is 7 1/2 cords per hour, consuming 100 horsepower. The chips pass through a screen to remove the dust and fines, the oversize then going to the rechipper, after which a final screen delivers the chips between 3/16 inch and 3/4 inch in size to the chip bins above the digesters.
Eight Digesters in Mill.
There are eight digesters in the mill, each having a capacity of 1320 cubic feet. These consist of vertical tanks, with a charge-hole at the top on which a cover is bolted down before beginning the process of cooking. The cooked pulp is discharged by live steam pressure through eight-inch pipes to the diffusers. When the digester has received its charge of chips, it is flooded with solution through a solution pipe and then cooked by raising the temperature by steam coils placed between the tank and an outer shell. This is known as the "indirect" cooking process. Its advantage over direct cooking is the avoidance of overdilution of the liquor in the pulp. Maintenance of as high a specific gravity as possible in the solutions is important. Otherwise the volume of solutions to be handled and evaporated would become very great and increase the costs in tankage required in power and in steam used in the evaporators. The total charge to a digester is 20,000 pounds of chips and 700 cubic feet of solution.
How Resin Is Disposed Of.
Digestion continues in 3 1/2 hour cycles, during which the caustic liquor dissolves the lignite from the wood and saponifies the resin. At the same time a group of volatile compounds is distilled and drawn off from above the pulp. These compounds consist of turpentine, pine oil, wood alcohol (methyl spirits) and small quantities of ammonia and sulphydromethyl. At the present time these are not refined at the Bogalusa plant, but a refining plant will shortly be installed, thus adding materially to the valuable by-products recovered. Experiments in by-product recovery have been made at Orange, Texas, but no by-product plants have been erected at any southern mills as yet.
YMCA BuildingFrom the digesters the pulp is blown by steam through pipes to the diffusers, of which there are 12 in the mill, each tank having the same capacity as one digester, i. e., 1320 cubic feet. These tanks are placed in a circle around the concrete "stock chest," which receives the wet pulp, and from which it is delivered to the wet machines in the paper mill proper. The function of the diffuser is to wash out the solution from the pulp. The diameter of the tank is 8 1/2 feet, and its depth about 20 feet. When a charge has been blown into it, hot water is then drawn upon the surface, and this gradually diffuses downward through flip mass of pulp, while the effluent, called the "black liquor," flows out through a pipe at the bottom.. The "black liquor" contains a very large amount of organic material, in combination with sodium, in the form of organic salts together with some unconsumed caustic soda, sodium sulphide and residual sulphate. It also contains the resin in the form of resinate of soda, which is removable from the "black liquor" by decantation. This is not now recovered in salable form at Bogalusa or elsewhere, but plans are being made either to prepare the resinate of soda in suitable condition to be sold to soap makers or to recover the resin from the saponified scum. A convenient and economical method of doing this, as now proposed by Mr. Laftman, would be to displace the resin oil from combination with the soda by the use of "niter cake," i.e., acid sodium sulphate (HNaSO4), thereby regenerating neutral sodium sulphate ("salt cake") for use in the pulping process. The scum of resinate of soda can also be removed and distilled in vacuo to recover the resin and resin oils. During the war rosin oils obtained in this manner were employed by the Germans to supplement their urgent requirements of lubricating oils. They may also be fractioned by distillation to produce materials for making lacquers, paints and varnishes.
A portion of the "black liquor" coming from the diffusers is diverted back to the digesters for diluting the liquors used in cooking the pulp, the advantage in doing so being that its specific gravity is fairly high, and this reduces the burden upon the evaporators.
The actual paper making front the wet pulp is relatively simple as compared with the preparation and management of the solutions. The wet pulp is rolled into sheets by five "wet machines."
School at Columbia Logging Camp, Bogalusa, Louisiana
The $40,000 Y. W. C. A., one of the finest in the StateMixing Pulp and Waste Paper.
The mixture of fresh pulp with waste paper is made in a battery of 16 machines called "beaters." These are shallow elliptical tanks, divided by a partition into an elliptical course, around which the pulp flows under the impulse of a rotary mechanism called a beater-roll, placed on one side channel. The beater-roll is provided with a series of knives, and beneath it, on the bottom of the channel in the tank, is a plate also set with knives. The roll is adjustable as to the distance from the bottom knife plate. Thus the beater-roll disintegrates and mixes the two classes of material fed to it at the same time that it causes the mix to flow around the elliptical course in the tank. The dry weight of one charge to each beater is 1500 pounds. The Bogalusa Paper Co. is installing immediately 11 more beaters, and by a change in the method of discharging, Mr. Laftman is greatly increasing the capacity of those now in the plant.
From the beaters the pulp is rolled and pressed into board by two six-cylinder machines, with 79 driers each trimming, respectively, 112 and 106 inches, the former having a capacity of 70 tons and the latter 65tons per 24 hours. Each machine is provided with four Jordan engines for the final "refining" of the pulp and paper stock. The third machine is a six-cylinder board machine trimming to 96 inches, followed by 94 driers, and having a capacity of 60 tons per diem. This will be supplied with four Jordan refining engines. The mixture for making the board or container-liner consist, of 60 per cent waste paper and 40 per cent kraft-pulp from local woods. Power is developed with waste material from the sawmill, cull logs and bark, generating steam in ten 250 horsepower and two 200 horsepower boilers. High-speed engines drive three 850 K. V. A. and two 550 K. V. A. generators, respectively, and one 2000 K. W. mixed pressure turbine generator from the General Electric Co. is just being installed. The entire plant employs 500 operatives.
For the past year the range of price has been from $130 to $180 per ton f. o. b. mill, and the output has averaged round about 120 tons of container-liner daily.
Pulp Supply to Increase.
Under the forestry policy now adopted by the Great Southern Lumber Co. the supply of raw material for the pulp mill, instead of decreasing, will henceforward increase to a maximum estimated to be more than sufficient to admit of enlarging the paper mill to a total capacity of nearly 600 tons of all kinds of paper products per diem. Accordingly four new units as a separate plant have been authorized by the board of directors of the Great Southern Lumber Co. and the Bogalusa Paper Co. This will be erected as an entirely distinct pulp and paper mill on the north side of the town of Bogalusa, nearly a mile distant from the old plant. Water for the new paper mill will have to be pumped from Pearl River, 1 1/2 miles away, as the flow of Bogue Lusa is insufficient at low stage. The reforestation project contemplates bringing up the paper output ultimately to 600 tons a day. At the present time 50 per cent of the tonnage of the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad, from New Orleans through Bogalusa to Jackson, Miss., which is one of the Grout Southern enterprises, consists of lumber. It is the purpose of the company to provide an equal tonnage of paper products. Consequently the future earning power of the Great Southern group of enterprises is based on a continuous output of pulp wood from various sources, all of which in the end rest for their permanency upon the results of reforestation. There will be renewal of timber on the lands of the company so that the production of lumber may never cease, but the future production of paper would be sufficient to earn dividends on the invested capital independently of any lumber output.
Not only will the company draw from its own lands to feed its paper hills, but reforestation by small land owners is being encouraged through the purchase by the Bogalusa Paper Co. of pulp wood through the area reached by its co-ordinated railroad system. The new plant, which has now been authorized, will involve the further investment of $8,000,000. The preparation of the plans for these additions, will commence within the next 60 days. In conjunction with the new paper mill, which will produce all classes of paper except newsprint, there will be erected a group of by-product plants which will create at this point a chemical industry of great importance.
The chief lesson to be drawn from the plant and policy of this progressive concern is that of permanency of industry based upon southern pine forests. One of the most serious problems that has had to be faced in the pine belt of the South has been that of the cut-over lands. They have remained as costly to clear as the virgin forest, with almost nothing but a little pine stump resin to repay the cost. In many cases they are poorly adapted to agriculture, though ordained by nature to produce longleaf and loblolly pine trees to perfection. The methods pursued by the Great Southern Lumber Co. offer a practical solution of the problem of the cut-over lands. In the old sense of a devastated region, practically useless and deserted, there will here be no "cut-over" lands. The ground will spring into verdure immediately behind the logging operation and soon will be producing pulp wood as valuable as the original forest.
What has been done at Bogalusa can be repeated throughout the pine districts of the South, providing steady employment for thousands of people and offering a basis for remunerative investment of capital in vast areas that otherwise would be abandoned.
Unless immediate steps are taken to reforest the cut-over lands of the South, the lumbering industry will come to a stop in the South Atlantic and Gulf states within approximately 25 years. Some estimates place the limiting period at 20 years. If practical reforestation methods should be adopted, continuance of extensive lumbering operations can be assured within the time required for the longleaf pine to attain a diameter of 15 inches at breast height above the ground, which is about 30 years. The shortleaf pine will do the same thing. There are, however, several other species that will grow much faster. For example, the loblolly and the slash pine will reach a diameter of 20 to 25 inches in 30 years. The average growth of these trees when given adequate protection from fire is one-half inch per annum. Wherever yellow pine and loblolly trees once grew they will grow again if given protection from stock and fires until they have pasted the tender age. The most critical period is the first three years.
NOGN RR Shops FactoryThese facts have been fully established in Louisiana. The lesson learned here is of vital importance for the whole south. It means that, with shall expense, many millions of acres of cut-over lands and timber tracts that are fast being denuded can be converted into a permanent source of wealth.
Rolling the board into finished form
Rolls of finished container-liner at plant of Bogalusa Paper Co.First Experiments ill Reforestation.
The first important experiment in reforestation of the yellow pine forests was made by H. E. Hardtner of Urania, near Alexandria, La. As a result, Urania has become a classic spot among those interested in forestry. The work of Mr. Hardtner and his conceptions of what was needed have been the basis of forest conservation laws in Louisiana that are the most rational and useful of any in the United States.
Mr. Hardtner operates a sawmill with daily capacity of 50,000 feet, board measure, and he has been operating it for nearly two decades. He still has about 12 years' supply of virgin timber, but he began reforestation on a tract of 50,000 acres of cut-over lands about 1903, so that by the time his virgin timber is gone he will have a new growth, estimated to yield 5000 board feel per acre, with which his lumbering operations will continue. In the beginning he went no further in forestry methods than to protect the small grown, and nature has done the rest. In addition to that he has been actually reforesting large areas of old fields during the past 10 years, on which fine young forests are corning forward. The virgin forest areas, as fast as they ore cut, are now being reforested. Consequently, Mr. Hardtner's lumbering operation is permanent.
At Bogalusa the Great Southern Lumber Co. is doing the same thing. Its results will have the added advantage of magnitude, and will thus stand forth as art object lesson of what can be done to keep the largest class of operation from disappearing after the virgin timber has been stripped. Tire Great Southern Lumber operates a sawmill that has a capacity of 1,000,000 board feet per diem. It has a pulp mill that produces 120 tons of container-liner daily, and is just preparing to erect additional paper mills with a combined capacity of 600 tons per diem. These are the biggest operations or their kind in the South. The sawmill may not be able continuously to maintain its huge output undiminished while the young forests are growing, but the paper mills will never be short or raw material. From first to last the Great Southern Lumber Co. will have over 350,000 acres of timber land under absolute control against damage by stock and fires, and systematic reforestation will keep that area constantly covered by growing nd (sic, should be "and") maturing forests. The conception of doing this is due to the foresight and initiative of Col. W. H. Sullivan, vice-president and general manager of the company. His demonstration of what can be achieved, in which he has been aided by his chief forester, J. K. Johnson, is so convincing that his company, after having seen the fruits of the first unit of their paper mill, is investing $8,000,000 in the erection of four more units. In addition to this practical profession of faith, the president of the Great Southern Lumber Co., Col. A. C. Goodyear, has expressed his conviction that what is good for Louisiana is good for the nation. He recently wrote:
Need of National Forest Policy.
"So far as the lumber industry, considered by itself, is concerned, I think that our need at present is the establishment of a national forest policy, which will take the question of timber preservation and reforestation out of the region of debate, in which they have remained for so long a time, and put them into practical operation in a way that will result neither in crippling a great industry nor in driving lumber prices to unreasonable heights, but will produce a timber supply for the country in the future.
Forestry is a science, but not a difficult one. An impression prevails in this country among the masses that the study and practice of forestry are encrusted with elaborate detail. This is another German legend with which the Teutons seek to frighten others from attempting the very simple things out of which they can make money. Not that Germany would profit by the denudation of our forests, but it is the German habit to surround every profession with a cloak of mystery. They have perforce adopted forestry, and they have elaborated a system of their own, concerning which they have written and talked in the usual bombastic and indefinite German manner.
As a matter of fact, the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture, through its chief forester, W. B. Greeley, has been endeavoring to impress upon the people the fact that practical, profitable reforestation is as simple a thing as raising wheat, and that while a college education may enable a man to discriminate better as to the selection of soils and of species for particular environments, and assist in other details of culture and preservation, the big economic result can be and must be attained by the man of plain common sense, who can apply a few easily understandable principles.
Any man possessed of ordinary good faculties of observation will realize that fires are not beneficial to forests, above all to pine forests, with their highly flammable resinous products. Any man who has ever seen a grass fire run through an old field where baby pines were just peeping up with a promise of future forests must have noticed that these baby pine trees were destroyed by the fire, or so hopelessly injured as to remain cripples ever after, incapable of developing into anything more than feeble, stunted trees. Any bird hunter out for a bagful of quail in the autumn on the cut-over lands of the South must have seen the wind shake the tops of the scattered, lonely trees that by accident had escaped the lumberman's saw and skidline, and have witnessed a flock of winged seed take flight from the pine cones and settle over the land. This was Dame Nature's attempt to provide for the needs of coming generations of men. The farmer has seen how eager his "shoats" are to dig up their young longleaf yellow pines so as to eat the succulent rootlets, and how they will strip off the inner bark from the roots of these same trees, even after they have attained a growth of five or six years. Therefore, along with fire, the "razor-back" is a vandal impovershing (Transcriber's note: sic, should be: impoverishing) the South of one of its greatest possible future resources. The lesson is to keep the pig out of the growing forests with fences, or, simpler still, through appropriate legislation to keep the hog at home in his own lot, securely enclosed by a pig-tight fence.
One may ask, "Is that all there is to forestry?" To be sure that is not all. The young men who are studying forestry in Yale and Cornell universities, for example, are learning a vast deal more than that; nevertheless, the plain man, seeing these agents of destruction at work, and realizing the gravity of them, comprehending that until their ravages have been stopped he cannot secure a new growth of timber, can count on Nature reseeding and bringing forth young trees for his future welfare if he will take the necessary steps to protect the baby trees and see to it that in some manner the seed gets upon the land. If there are any old trees in the vicinity. Nature will sow his fenced fields for him. If there are no such trees and the land is not as valuable for farming as for raising pines, then he must gather some seed and broadcast it.
Pine Plantation Undertaken.
The Great Southern Lumber Co. is doing such seeding on a large scale. This is helping Nature so as to produce a prompt result. In time, with proper protection, reseeding would gradually extend over large areas of bare old fields. But why wait? The people around Bogalusa have found that they could earn easy money by gathering longleaf yellow pine seed at 50 cents per pound. The loblolly seed are smaller and lighter, so the company pays $2 per pound for this variety. At these prices tons of seed have been gathered. if it is worth that much for a corporation, it must be worth more for the individual who has some wasteland that is nearly useless except for trees that might be grown on it.
No more than one pound of yellow pine seed is required per acre; the loblolly or "old field" pine seed will go even further — perhaps two pounds for three acres. Nature is more prodigal; she will often sow 20 pounds of seed per acre from a few seed trees, but if the ground is not covered with a mat of grass, so as to keep the seed from coming in direct contact with the soil, the lesser quantity is quite enough. There is no advantage in having trees too thick, and when broadcasting is adopted it may become a positive disadvantage. To secure a good, lusty growth it is undesirable to have a denser stand than 500 per acre. A certain number of seed, from varying causes, will fail to produce trees, otherwise an ounce or two per acre would be sufficient. Thinning trees when they stand irregularly clustered is somewhat costly. Hence the broadcast sowing at the rate given above, seems to produce the best economic results. In this connection it may be interesting to record that
the denuded hills and plateau country around famous Rio Tinto mine in Spain are also being systematically reforested with native species, the maritime pine, which is an excellent turpentine producer. One ton of seed is sown yearly by the school children during vacations, who are paid a good wage and work under the direction of the teachers. The children are marshalled in rows like attacking regiments, each at armed with a steel-shod pike and carrying a bag seed slung over the shoulder. Each thrusts his pike into the ground in front of him, throws a seed into the hole, steps forward and repeats the operation. Thus the seed are sown in rows that line up in both directions like a cornfield planted by an orderly minded farmer. The success of the Rio Tinto experiment has been astounding. Great areas are now green with lusty trees and very few seeds seem to have missed germinating. This is probably due to the protection given by lying in the shallow hole. The regular alignment is meant to facilitate thinning foe pulp wood. Alternate rows in each direction can be removed without injury to their neighbors, and the remaining trees will then leave space in which to grow for later use as timber.
A First Year Face on a Turpentine Producer
Hooker Turpentine Camp near BogalusaTranscriber's note: Sign above building says: "Bogalusa Turpentine Co.
To Seed 5000 Acres This Year.
At Bogalusa Mr. Johnson, forester for the Great Southern Lumber Co., has already seeded three sections of 640 acres, and will sow this year not less than 5000 acres. They are therefore sowing the seed by the ton, just as at Rio Tinto. They are also fencing another 5000 acres, on which some natural seeding will take place, but next year this area will be seeded by broadcasting so far as necessary. It has been found that timber cut from September up to December, especially that felled in September and October, will reseed the ground immediately. Also, the timber felled up to January will have seeded the ground, but a considerable proportion of these young sprouts will be destroyed by the logging operations. The skid line is the chief cause of damage, and this is unavoidable. It plows up the ground, destroying the seedlings, but incidentally leaving the soil stirred in a manner that is highly favorable for the prompt germination of the seed. Moreover, the seed sprouts readily amid the trash that strews the ground after the operation of logging.
On one tract of 800 acres on the outskirts of the city of Bogalusa the company has acted on the hint caught from the effect of skid lines and has plowed the field in five-furrow strips eight feet apart, center to center, employing a common steel-beam mold-board plow. The plowed strips are then broadcasted with the pine seed. The plowing also helps in the fire patrol, special fire strips being plowed around the outside of the area, and also at intervals across the seeded ground. No cleaning is done preparatory to plowing, and the plowing is very superficial, merely stirring the upper layer of the soil. The result has been that the seeds have germinated promptly and more generally than on old fields that have not been treated in this manner. However, a largo and particularly bare stretch of former pine land, the seeding of which is shown in an accompanying illustration, after lying untouched for several years, and being largely overgrown by native grasses, has shown a very general germination of the seed over the tract within five days after being broadcasted. The method of plowing before seeding was approved by General Greeley, of the United State Forest Service on his visit hereon one occasion, but the success attained on the unplowed old field raises a question as to the need of this extra expense. Its importance in the fire protection may justify it, however. It must be noted that when seed is less abundant than this year there might be great losses of seed from birds and rodents when broadcasted. This matter is well understood by the forestry department of the company.
Co-operative Work.
The Great Southern Lumber Co. is working in close accord with the forestry department of the national and state governments. Under the Louisiana law it is now required, subject to penalties for non-performance, to leave one healthy seed tree on each acre from which the timber is stripped by logging. This is the minimum for natural reforestation. The company goes further than that. They find that in any virgin forest there are always groups of young trees that are unfit for sawing into lumber. These are generally destroyed by the skid lines, and often felled to facilitate hauling the logs up to the skidder and loader. These groups of younger trees which had sprang up in the woods, filling the vacant places left by timber fallen through age or blown down by storms, are called "schools." 'They may consist of 10 to 30 young trees. The average is 28 per acre. The present practice is to clearly mark those by rings of white paint about six or seven feet above the ground, and they are carefully protected against injury front felled trees and from the skid lines. This insures abundant reseeding, and it also takes advantage of the reforestation already started by Nature, so that a very important crop of mature trees will be ready within a. relatively short time after the virgin timber has been cut, far in advance of the growth from reseeding at that time. From this source will come saw logs by the time the reseeded young growth is ready to cut for pulp wood, which will depend upon the size to which it may he deemed most economical to let them develop. Thinning may be desirable when the smaller trees are four inches in diameter, which would mean an age of eight years. The harvest for pulp wood will be progressive, at intervals of several years, taking trees from four to 10 inches.
On leaving seed trees and schools of small timber it is found that the bark beetle, a scavenger that feeds on refuse and on the bark of dead and feeble trees, will attack them, taking advantage of their weakness or of any injuries they may have received during the logging operation. A blazed tree is liable to the attack of the bark beetle (Transcriber's note: sic, should be: bark beetle). Moreover, when the bark beetle has finished eating up the refuse left front logging, he turns his attention to any standing timber in the vicinity, and unless it is so strong and healthy as to resist, it will be destroyed. To eliminate this difficulty gangs of men are now sent in behind the loggers to gather up the refuse, or "slash," and burn it under control. In this manner perfect protection against the bark beetle is secured.
In older to further protect the schools of young trees and the seed trees the company, through its forestry department and its trained forest patrol men, of whom there is one in each logging camp, marks the trees to be preserved ahead of the turpentine crews. These precede the loggers by three years, and they would do much damage unless restrained by leaving the trees marked that are to be left inviolate. All trees less than eight inches diameter are thus protected.
Manufacture of Turpentine.
The turpentine camps are equipped with copper stills, direct heated by wood fires in the firebox beneath. The turpentine and volatile oils distill into a copper coil condenser, cooled in a tank of circulating water. The volatile products as they condense flow from the end of the coil and are barrelled for shipment. The resinous material that collects in the cups below the scraped surface of the tree, together with the chips scraped off in scoring the tree to induce the flow of the "turpentine," collectively called "scrape," is brought by wagons to the still and is dumped into it through a cover hole on top. The kettle of a still must have a capacity of 20 barrels to boil 10 barrels of "scrape." Such a still will treat 150 barrels of "scrape" per diem. The resin settles to the bottom of the kettle, draining away from the chips, while the lighter products vaporize and pass out through the condenser. At intervals the molten resin is tapped off through a drain hole near the bottom and filtered hot through a film of raw cotton extended over a wire screen. From the filter it flows into barrels for shipment. The two plans operated by the Great Southern Lumber Co. produce 350 carloads of resin and turpentine per year. Since these substances are readily collected as a by-product
from the sulphate pulping process, the turpentine still will disappear when the regrowth is cut for feeding paper mills, and this will eliminate one more source of accidental damage to the schools of trees that are reserved.
In order to protect the logging operation from fire it is necessary to burn off the grass and needles in advance of the logging crews. It has been found that in so doing at the season when the trees are seeding the wing of the seed will burn, but the seed itself will be uninjured, and thus a considerable reseeding occurs at once, independently of that from the seed trees left.
The problem of protecting the reseeded areas may be solved either by securely fencing them or by arousing the interest of the local population to enact a stock law that will keep the pigs from straying at will. Fencing is expensive, although this outlay might be minimized by erecting only lead fence to keep the animals away from the seedling tracts.
Settlers to Grow Trees.
It is more valuable, however, to have an enlightened public opinion that will assist in carrying out a plan of reforestation. Fortunately there is a rural population scattered throughout the forests of Washington parish around Bogalusa. These people own farms ranging from 40 to 100 acres or more. In any piece of land taken up for farming it rarely happens that more than 40 acres are under actual cultivation. The remainder would be of more value to the farmer if cultivated as forest, and the company has begun to make this fact apparent by purchasing all the pulpwood of suitable dimension that is offered. The price paid is $5 per cord of 154 cubic feet, delivered at railroad. In 12 years at farmer can harvest a crop from a seeded area amounting to 15 to 20 cords, worth $75 to $100. Here and there exist farms that have been protected accidentally by fences elected when the old fields had been cultivated. Thereby the pigs were field out, and the new growth obtained a start. Solve of these people have growths of new pine that are ready for market, and these serve as an object lesson to their neighbors. It is evident that the farmers, spurred by self interest, will soon enact a stock law that will make fencing unnecessary in Washington parish as part of a reforestation program. The same personal interest of the local inhabitant in tree culture will abate the fire menace. Every farmer who begins to grow trees for profit is by that very act constituted a natural guardian of the forests, and he becomes a self-appointed and very determined fire patrolman. Half the struggle to achieve reforestation in the South will consist in providing the local landholder with a remunerative market for the product of his tree farms. With the erection of pulp mills in suitable places the trees will come just as the erection of a creamery in the right spot will bring the cows.
Another incentive to tree culture is being held out by a wise statute enacted in Louisiana which enables anyone owning land suitable for reforestation and assessed at a valuation not in excess of $10 per acre to enter into a contract with the state for periods ranging from 15 to 40 years, as desired, whereby the landholder obligated himself to reforest under the general advice and direction of the forestry division of the State Department of Conservation, and the assessment valuation of such land then remains fixed during the period of the contract. In most states a man should attempt to reforest is penalized for it, since the tax assessor increases the valuation as the trees advance toward maturity, on the ground that they constitute an available asset.
Many years ago Louisiana enacted a law that should serve as a model for every southern state. It permitted a reforestation contract that automatically fixed the valuation of such land at $1 per acre for the period of the contract up to 40 years. This law was in advance of the times and comparatively few took advantage of it. Among those who were wise enough to do so was Henry D. Hardtner of Ursula. As the liberality of this statute was not appreciated, it was modified so that now the average fixed valuation under such a reforestation contract is $5 per acre. This is rather high. A return to the $1 basis would be better, accompanied by a soil survey when application for exemption is made, so that it should apply to lands more valuable for tree culture than for general farming. The Great Southern Lumber Co. is planning to reforest only the lands that the soil survey now being made by A. E. Anderson, of the United States Bureau of Soils, shall indicate as being clearly best suited for the culture of pines. From the present results it appears that about 75 per cent of the holdings of the company will be set apart for reforesting and the remainder of the cutover lands will be offered for sale to farmers. The present price of such lands here is $15 per acre.
The stale of Louisiana has a well-organized forestry department, headed by R. D. Forbes, with offices at the department of conservation, New Orleans. Hon. M. L. Alexander, the state conservation commissioner, is also closely related to the work and is ex-officio chairman of the state forestry board, appointed for advisory purposes. This board consists of Col. W. H. Sullivan, of Bogalusa; Henry E. Hardtner, of Urania; S. T. Woodring, of Lake Charles, and Prof. J. G. Lee, of the department of forestry of the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. The state forestry department has prepared a primer of forestry, which will soon be in print, when it will be used as a textbook for elementary instruction in forestry in the public schools. In this way public opinion favoring reforestation will be cultivated and immense practical results are to be anticipated.
Another project in Louisiana for awakening an interest in forestry consists in boys' forestry clubs, following the precedents of boys' pig clubs and boys corn clubs. These are being organized in co-operation with Mr. Forbes, of the state forestry department. This idea was conceived by Col. W. H. Sullivan, who has offered $500 to be awarded as prizes during 1921. His plan is as follows:
Reforestation Clubs for Boys.
To be a member of a reforestation club each boy should have charge of a tract of land that is being reforested, either naturally or artifically (Transcriber's note: sic, should be: artificially), and on his success in producing a valuable forest of young trees would depend his capture of a prize. In most cases the reforestation would be natural, from seed scattered on the wind by nearby trees, but where no seed trees exist planting would be the method of securing a young stand. The contest would also extend to sapling thickets, which the boy might thin out scientifically to produce the best and quickest growth or from which he might secure the greatest revenue by careful cutting and marketing." (Transcriber's note: sic, there is only the ending quote marks.) For the boy's protection it is required that his father or guardian enter into the exemption contract with the state, and it is suggested that the tract which he cultivates be deeded to him so that he would own a valuable piece of property on coming of age.
Growth of Yellow Pine Rapid.
The experiments in Louisiana have shown that the longleaf or yellow pine (Pinus palustris) is as well adapted to reforestation as the loblolly or old field pine (Pinus taeda), and that its growth is equally rapid. The proportion of summer growth, seen in the dark pitchy zones surrounding the sapwood in each annual ring, is greater, and this gives it superior value for flooring and interior finishing. It requires more careful guarding, against the ravages of stock, since pigs and cattle do not injure the loblolly, while they find the young yellow pine appetizing, as previously explained. On the other hand, the longleaf yellow pine, even when young, is more resistant to fire than the loblolly. The shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) is also a good tree and a rapid grower. The loblolly does best on the drier soils, but the longleaf yellow pine seems to thrive equally well in wet or dry situations, which is a great advantage. This is especially important in Washington parish, Louisiana, where the sandy soils have been derived from the erosion of the coastal plain soils farther north, and consist of a mixture of fine silica sand and feldspar grains, which later decompose and form gelatinous colloids that accumulate a short distance below the surface, making so perfect a water seal that the upper layers are generally wet, although at some depth below the surface the sands will be found dry. In consequence of this peculiarity the trees here do not generally root deep, but spread out close to the top layer of soil so as to obtain oxygen. The yellow pine has proved perfectly adapted to such conditions.
It is pointed out by foresters that the yellow pine, an indigenous species in this region, seems to be on the decline. Very few of the trees in the virgin forests are more than 150 years old. Trees of that age tend to become unsound. This is interesting and may be significant in connection with future forestry operations.
Other Species Grow Rapidly.
There is another tree that seems to be particularly aggressive, and in consequence is attracting great attention. This is the slash pine (Pinus heterophylla), ordinarily considered a swamp tree, though not as distinctly so as the spruce or cedar pine (Pinus glabra). The latter has a wide sapwood, but the stash pine is remarkable for its very wide summer growth. It therefore makes a stronger, harder lumber, and it is considered by some to be even a better turpentine tree than the yellow pine. It grows very tall and straight, often making a height of 200 feet. It is much sought after for use as piling. It does equally well on high or low land, and it will thrive no matter how wet and undrained the site may be. It needs careful protection from fires, especially while young, being far less resistant than the longleaf yellow pine. On the other hand, it is not touched by hogs, which removes one great difficulty in reforestation. Austin Cary, of the United States Forest Service, says it is the coming pine for the South, and Mr. Forbes, Louisiana state forester, confirms his opinion. It is singular that the slash line, which grows along the Gulf and South Atlantic coasts, stops short at the Mississippi River.
The remarkable achievements in reforestation in Louisiana and the enormous new investments by the Great Southern Lumber Co., based upon a broad policy of scientific tree culture, have already aroused wide interest, and it seems likely that the progress made here will soon be emulated in other states. The state of Mississippi recently created a conservation commission, which held its first regular meeting at Jackson on January 17. Reforestation was one of the chief questions considered, the purpose of the commission being to submit a bill for a conservation act. This commission consists of P. P. Garner, chairman; H. E.Blakeslie, statistician; James T. Ward, secretary; Judge Percy Bell and Prof. E. N. Lowe. Representatives from Louisiana were invited to attend this meeting.
This great work accomplished at Urania and at Bogalusa stands as a splendid lesson for the whole South. At these places the problem of the cut-over lands has ceased to exist. They have proved how to reforest them economically and how to realize a handsome profit from them. Let others follow these examples. In the words of the Bogalusa slogan, "It Can Be Done."
(Transcriber's note: PUBLISHED BY ARRANGEMENT WITH THE MANUFACTURERS RECORD. Is this the same as: Baltimore Journal of Commerce and Manufacturers' Record?)
Sullivan House
The Sullivan House is set on a large wooded lot, with a moderately sized front lawn, and a backward sloping rear yard.
The house is generally symmetrical with a two and a half story central block set between a pair of larger projecting three story wings, each with a hip roof. There is a two story sun porch on the ballroom end of the house, and a one story porch on the kitchen end. The massing, which produces an overall stately effect, is generally attributable to the influence of the turn-of-the-century Renaissance Revival, as are the wings, where the third story windows are set within a widened frieze. Most of the exterior features must be viewed within the context of the "colonial revival."
This includes the 3-bay colossal order gallery, which embraces the facade of the central block. It also includes a multi-pilastered front door, the ballroom front windows which are set within a Palladian window motif, and the three dormers. Most of the dormers are oversized versions of the Federal arched type, but the central dormer is larger than the rest, containing a Palladian window surmounted by an English swan neck pediment. All styling both inside and out is achieved with standard manufactured architectural features.
The central block of the house is one room deep, and the flanking three story wings are two rooms deep. The entrance hall amounts to a Queen Anne living hall, but the living hall elements are confined to one corner and are diminutive in proportion to the room. A colonial revival half-turn staircase has a paneled inglenook bench set in its side, with an adjacent fireplace. The back wall of the stair-landing is broken through with a framed opening which provides a vista from the entrance hall to the adjacent ballroom. Despite all of this, the rooms, for the most part, are large, airy, and plain. Several of the rear bedrooms and the breakfast room are lit by bands of leaded opalescent glass windows set at the shoulder level. There is also a hidden trap door to the basement.
Constructed of long leaf yellow pine with clapboard exterior, on a concrete foundation, the house is notable for its original colonial style sconces and for its original plumbing fixtures.
Since the house was built, the second floor balcony, behind the front portico, has been enclosed with glass. Although this enclosure mars the Classical effect of the portico, it does not effect the stately massing of the house. In any case, impending restoration plans call for the removal of the glass, and restoration of the old balcony.
SPECIFIC DATES c.1907
BUILDER/ARCHITECT William Henry Sullivan
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
The Sullivan House has significance in three areas -- architecture, industry, and local history. The Sullivan House is a builder vernacular combination of elements from the Neo-Georgian, the Renaissance Revival, and the Queen Anne Revival. It presents a grand, dignified, and stately appearance which is unmatched by any other period residence in Bogalusa or its vicinity. Even though it is builder vernacular, the house is one of the best representative examples in the area of the general trend away from the irregularity of the larger Queen Anne houses at the turn of the
century, and towards a more rigid, ordered, and mannered style.
Due to its association with its builder William H. Sullivan (1864-1929), the house is also of significance in the areas of local history and industry. Sullivan, according to historian Amy Quick, was justly known as "the father of Bogalusa." As general manager of the Great Southern Lumber Company's operation in Bogalusa, he was in complete charge of the erection of the town in 1907-1908.
Quick states that Sullivan "had instructions at all times to build the largest and best equipped plant in the world; to make the town a good town in which to live; to give the people good schools, churches, well arranged homes with electric lights, pure water, sewerage and all modern conveniences; to build good streets, good sidewalks, and to make the town so attractive that men who worked in lumber enterprises would be glad to live in Bogalusa. How well he succeeded in carrying out these instructions, Bogalusa citizens have attested for many years" (Amy Quick, The History of Bogalusa, the “Magic City" of Louisiana. Reprinted from Louisiana Historical Quarterly (Jan. 1946), p. 26).
Until 1914, Sullivan ruled Bogalusa as the "headman" of a huge lumber camp, and upon its incorporation that year he became its first mayor, ruling its civic as well as its business affairs until his death in 1929. Quick characterizes Sullivan's rule as "paternalistic," akin to that of a "benevolent despot." By 1929, under Sullivan's direction, the Great Southern Lumber Company had built a
company-owned town of ten thousand people (Quick, p. 111). At the time of his death he was Vice President and General Manager of the Great Southern Lumber Company, Executive Vice President of the Bogalusa Paper Company, President of the Bogalusa Turpentine Company, President of the Bogalusa Stores Company, and a director of the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad. In addition, he was still Mayor of Bogalusa (Quick, p. 117). The house was probably built in 1907 or 1908 and Sullivan lived in it till his death. The workers soon came to refer to the home as "Official Quarters." Its section of town was called "Little Buffalo" or "Buffalotown" since it was the residential district where many of the company officials who had come there from Buffalo, New York had their homes. The Sullivan house was, of course, the largest and grandest (Quick, p. 31; Al Hansen, “Sullivan’s Castle is Being Restored," Bogalusa Daily News, 11 July 1978).
Bogalusa City Hall
The Bogalusa City Hall is set in the midst of a modern, low-scale, municipal government complex, which connects with the City Hall through the west wing. The boundaries of the nominated area were chosen to include the City Hall and exclude the newer municipal buildings, which are set to the rear and sides. The City Hall has a small front lawn, and is approached by means of a semi-circular driveway.
The early twentieth century Classical style building is thirteen bays wide and one story high. The five-part facade has a central portico, hyphen wings, and a pair of end pavilions. The four-column Tuscan entrance portico lacks a pediment, as do the end pavilions. The central square lobby is surmounted by a heavily molded square dome, with a large central skylight under a circular lantern. The major offices are located at either end of the building, in the aforementioned end pavilions. Air circulation is achieved by means of axial corridors which radiate in three directions from the central lobby. They give strong vistas through the building, and provide access to municipal offices and the large rear court room.
The long leaf yellow pine building is raised approximately three feet above the ground on a ventilated brick foundation. All windows and doors are original.
The exterior composition presents a harmonious, elegant, and essentially Classical
appearance, most of which is derived from the turn-of-the-century Renaissance Revival. This includes features like the heavy double bracketed frieze, the gently sloping roofs, the five part composition with the central dome, and the double clapboarding which gives the appearance of rusticated stone. The interior has long leaf yellow pine, board and batten wainscotting, and several pedimented doors, but is otherwise unornamented.
Ceilings have been lowered in the corridors and offices. But this is the only change in the building, other than the aforementioned hyphen connection with the modern municipal buildings to the rear and sides.
SPECIFIC DATES 1917
BUILDER/ARCHITECT Architect: Rathbone Debuys
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
The Bogalusa City Hall is of architectural significance as a handsome example of an early twentieth century town hall of the then predominant Classical mode. The elegant Renaissance Revival building, with its five-part composition, and axial, almost Palladian plan, represents a greater degree of high style sophistication than is achieved in any other building in Bogalusa, or most other town halls in southeastern Louisiana. The City Hall's significance in the area of politics/government rests upon its status as the seat of municipal government since 1917.
Bogalusa was incorporated as a city in 1914, and the City Council met first in the office building of the Great Southern Lumber Company, the corporation which had erected the town (See Amy Quick, The History of Bogalusa, the "Magic City" of Louisiana (reprinted from Louisiana Historical Quarterly, Jan. 1946), pp. 38, 43-44). The town's first mayor was William H. Sullivan, general manager of the Great Southern’s operations in Bogalusa and “the father of Bogalusa." The first two major tasks undertaken by the new municipal government were the purchase from the
lumber company of the water and sewer system and improvement of it, and the erection of the City Hall (See Quick, pp. 37, 44-45). The architect for the building was Rathbone Debuys of New Orleans and the contractor E. N. Moore (See original plans, located in City Hall in Bogalusa).
MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
Quick, Amy. The History of Bogalusa, the “Magic City" of Louisiana. Reprinted from Louisiana Historical Quarterly, Jan. 1946. Plans for City Hall, located in Bogalusa City Hall.
Bogalusa Railroad Station
The Bogalusa railroad depot is set near the center of downtown Bogalusa on the edge of a wide railroad corridor. Constructed of brick laid up in common bond, the station is nine bays wide and two rooms deep with a porch at each end. Some of the original doors and windows on the interior have been replaced and the two walk-through passages have been enclosed. However, these changes have had minor visual impact upon the building. The hip roof is original, and although the original cupola is lost, it has recently been replaced in kind as part of an ongoing restoration
effort.
Noteworthy exterior details include the semi-octagonal ticket window and the heavy pine brackets on the brick porch columns
The interiors are plain and remain in more or less original condition though there has been some deterioration of the plaster. One of the rooms has pressed tin on the walls and ceiling.
SPECIFIC DATES 1907
Post Office
The United States Post Office in Bogalusa, Louisiana is a two-story brick building with basement. The elevated main floor is made accessible by a flight of granite steps with cast iron railings. The roof is flat composition. The street facade of first floor is divided into nine bays reading window-window-window-window-door-window-window-window-window. The central doorway is flanked by a pair of lights which are bracketed to the main facade. The north and south facade each consist of five bays of windows. A mailing vestibule and platform project from the rear (west) facade.
The public lobby has a granite floor with a marble border and wainscot. The interior of the building was modernized and remodeled in 1962 whereby a complete new electrical lighting system and central air conditioning were added. At the same time the first floor and basement were extended and the above mentioned mailing vestibule and platform were added. The addition may easily be identified in attached photographs as it is only one story, is on rear of building and contains two bays of windows. The structural integrity of the original exterior is not affected by the addition.
SPECIFIC DATES 1930/31, 1961/62
BUILDER/ARCHITECT James A. Wetmore, Acting Supervising Architect
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
The Bogalusa Post Office has an elegant Neo-Georgian treatment which surpasses all the other monumental structures in Bogalusa in terms of "high style" sophistication. This can be seen in the modular spacing of the windows, in the use of contrasting quoining, as well as in the use of a modillion cornice and rooftop balustrade. In addition, the lower story features handsome arched openings with a central aedicule motif entrance.
The architectural value of the Post Office is enhanced by the fact that it is one of the few monumental buildings remaining in Bogalusa. The city, which was once the center of the vast Goodyear Company lumbering empire, has lost most of its larger historic structures within the past forty years.
The building was designed in 1930 and constructed in 1930/31 under the supervision of the Treasury Department. The addition to the b uilding was designed in 1961 and construction completed in 1962.
