Bogalusa

"The Timberman", 1921

Second Page

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

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 out put 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 15 mills and in the City of Bogalusa 25 mills per hundred dollars.

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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 gram mar schools, accommodating 2200 white pupils and having 52 white 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 ale mote 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 ex pended 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 de sign 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.

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