LUMBER MILLS OF CALCASIEU PARISH, LA Contributed by Margaret Rerntrop Moore Source: Southwest Louisiana Biographical & Historical by William Henry Perrin; published 1891 page 156 - 158. ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ LUMBER MILLS.-These are by far the most valuable industry about Lake Charles. Nothing is attracting more attention in the South than the famous pine lumber. Capitalists from the North, and even from England, are seeking pine lands, and in many places are endeavoring to obtain interest in the large lumber already established, or erecting new mills. No place is more favorably adapted to the lumber business than Lake Charles; no place so well adapted to the handling of logs. The streams north of the town are so well distributed through the Calcasieu pine region that it makes it an easy and cheap way to place the logs in floating water. These streams come together just north of the town, and it is this that gives it an advantage over most places in the South, as in unlimited number of cheap logs can be obtained the entire year. To give some idea of the lumber business of Lake Charles, it is only necessary to give a brief synopsis of the mills and their business. M. T. Jones & Co.'s mill is situated on the east bank of the lake, just south of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and has a capacity of from seventy--five thousand to ninety thousand feet of lumber daily. The sizer and planer a capacity of from one hundred and fifty thousand to two hundred thousand feet daily. The mill has cut as high as one hundred and six thousand feet in one day. The Bradley - Ramsey Lumber Company is located on the Calcasieu River, about a mile north of the Southern Pacific depot. The first mill established here was in 1853 by Captain D. J. Goos. It was a small affair then, but with enterprise and perseverance, improvements were made and new machinery was added until a number of lumber men, with confidence in the future of the Calcasieu pine, bought one hundred and fifty thousand acres of pine lands, and shortly after purchased the Goos mill and organized the Calcasieu Lumber Company. In 1887 the present Bradley-Ramsey Company was organized. Their mill is well nigh perfect, and has a capacity of from sixty thousand to seventy-five thousand feet daily. In connection is planer and a dry house. Perkins & Miller's mill is located on the west side of the lake and was establislied in 1870- It has been greatly improved in all these years, and now has a capacity of from sixty to seventy thousand feet daily. Some four hundred yards from the mill is the planer, which has a capacity of nearly fifty thousand feet dally. One of the planers will take a piece of lumber 6 x 18 inches and dress the four sides by passing once through the mill. A great deal of this machinery is new. The mill has added in improvement in the last thirteen months about $13,000 and are still improving. A contract made a few days ago, to place a 40,000 gallon tank fifty feet high, for the purpose of waterworks for the protection of the mills and lumber has been completed. In the rear of the mill is a marshy place running back some distance. Saw dust has been piled on this to a depth of perhaps eight or ten feet, and on this saw dust is a large lunber yard with a stock on hand of from three to four- million feet. It is claimed, and with good reasoning, that the dampness is taken up by the saw dust, and lumber may be piled and seasoned on this saw dust free from mould spots. The lumber is shipped by schooner and rail to Mexico, Texas, Colorado, and Kansas. The logs used in this mill are brought from the C. & V. R. R. The firm of A. J. Perkins & Co., of Galveston, Texas, own a half interest in this road, and the firm of Perkins & Miller get one-half the logs and Lock, Moore & Co., the other half. The road puts into tide water over five hundred logs per day, which are towed by a tug bout to the booms at these mills. The Norris mill was established by Mr. W. B. Norris in 1866, at what is called Norris' Point. This is where the Calcasieu River runs into, or rather by the north-west corner of, Lake Charles. The mill when first established was small, but was kept steadily running until 1872, - when the demand on Mr. Norris for lumber became so great he tore down the little mill and erected in its stead a large, double mill, running two circulars. This mill was burned in 1873, and was rebuilt the same year, from which time until January, 1888, it run almost without interruption, except from an occasional repair or putting in new machinery, and during all this time Mr. Norris was seldom up with his orders, so great was the demand. In January, 1888, this mill burned, and almost before the ashes became cold the debris was cleared away, and in less than six months' time another large mill was erected; in this, however, was placed a band saw and a finishing circular saw, instead of a circular alone. The band saw is supposed to cut about two-thirds that of a circular; the band saw and finishing circular together being about equal to the circular saw. Mr. Norris was the first man on this river to put in a planner and the first and only one yet to put in a band saw. He put in the planer in 1868, and has had them in constint use ever since. In the new mill is entire new machinery of the latest improvements. There are also two planers and a molder, a sticker and a resaw. Just across the river is the Sturtevant dry kiln, just completed, with a capacity of one hundred thousand feet. Drew's mill is the property of H. C. Drew, and is situated on the lake front in the lower part of the city. Several years ago the mill was burned, but was, soon rebuilt. The mill has a capacity of about thirty thousand feet per day. y The shipments are largely by water on schooners, of which Mr. Drew is the owner, to ports in Texas and Mexico. There is no switch to it from the railroad, and all shipments by rail from this point are carried to Westlake, where the lumber is placed on cars. He runs a planer, and also near by is a shingle mill, with a capacity of twenty-five thousand per day, and hoop and stave factory. The Mount Hope mill is the property of W. L. Hutchings, the parish treas- urer, and is located on the Calcasieu River, within the corporate limits, in the northern part of the town. It is a good mill, with a cutting capacity of about forty thousand feet per day, and has a planer in operation. It has been almost entirely remodeled within the last twelve months. Besides these mentioned there are a number of others in and around Lake Charles and Westlake, and in the parish, most of which are in operation. Among these the Hampton mill, the Walter & Greeves, Lock, Moore & Co.,. Burleson Brothers, the Hansen mill, Ryan & Geary, etc. Some of these are only shingle mills, but most of them are lumber, and some of them lumber and shingles. It is probably no exaggeration to say that the mills of Lake Charles and immediate vicinity cut upon an average at least half a million feet of lumber daily, and shingles, well, " more than any man can number."