Long Leaf Sawmill

The Long Leaf sawmill is the third mill built at Long Leaf. It replaced the initial steam powered sawmill at this location, which was built between 1893 and 1895 and burned on October 1, 1900. That mill was the second located here, replacing the earliest mill, a water powered mill across the railroad tracks in the valley of Barbers Creek. This first mill was built by Hadley E. Dyer sometime in the middle 1880's and was leased by Crowell and Spencer in April, 1893 to start the development of Long Leaf. As Long Leaf developed, Crowell and Spencer purchased the site in 1901. The current mill was built to house salvaged equipment from the burned mill, but it was enlarged and rebuilt in 1910, 1920, 1936, and 1944 before being converted to electricity in 1957. Originally, it was a dual circular saw mill with a capacity of 80,000 board feet per day, but in 1910 the initial boilers were replaced with 4 boilers and the long side band saw replaced one of the circular saws, raising the capacity to 100,000 board feet per day. In 1920, 2 additional boilers were added, and in 1936 a large water tube boiler was added by remodeling some of the sawdust storage space and a new green chain and dry kiln were installed. In 1944, the circular saw was replaced by the short side band saw, and the capacity increased to 125,000 board feet per day.

Louisiana · United States