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Bogalusa

"The Timberman", 1921

Index to story:

Bogalusa Start Page

Paper Plant to Rise

Civic Improvement a Source of Pride

The Great Sawmill at Bogalusa

The Logging Railroad System

Dipping Lumber to Prevent Stain

How Second Stream is Handled

The Power Plant

New Civic Enterprises Planned

Pulp Mill Supplants Waste Burner

Sulphate Process Used

Other Pulp Plants in South

Waste Paper Provides Tonnage

Links

Bogalusa, Washington Parish, Louisiana

Bogalusa Story by C. W. Goodyear

[This story is from the July, 1921 edition of “The Timberman”. If this is copyrighted or there is objection to its being posted here, please let me know and I will remove it. Sam Lindsey]

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 b e g I n 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 75 workmen, 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.

Bogalusa 2nd Page

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