These solid iron gears came from the old sugar refinery at Meeker, Louisiana, where a cooperative sugar mill owned by various local farmers was built in 1912 and operated until its closure in 1981, when it was judged economically cheaper to send local sugar cane to existing mills in south Louisiana. In the early 1990s, the mill was sold to a company that added new equipment and converted it to make additives for soap products, but production stopped around 2010 and the mill remained closed afterward. The current owners later decided to clear the entire forty-acre site of both old and newer buildings and equipment, and during late 2021 and early 2022 the mill was completely demolished, with its bricks and equipment hauled away and sold.