In June 1926, the Grove-Dowling Hardwood Company was formed as a partnership of E.W. Grove, Sr., and brothers William H. and James H. Dowling, who moved their lumber business from Odessa in Pasco County to Gulf Hammock in Levy County. With Grove's capital, they purchased 250,000 acres of land rich in cypress, hardwood, and virgin pine, and the company, employing more than four hundred men, expanded Gulf Hammock west of the site by building more than 150 homes and cottages for workers and their families. The company town included lights, running water, a state-approved sewage system, a complete lighting system, power plant, department store, and modern hospital. New lumber mills with large machinery were built, along with a modern machine shop to repair locomotives. The main saw mill cut 100,000 feet of lumber each day, and there also were a planing mill, twelve dry kilns, and a cooling shed that could hold one million feet of rough lumber. The crate mill produced 8,000 baskets or hampers per day, making it among the largest crate factories in the South. For logging, the company used five locomotives, four large locomotive cranes, two log loaders, and one skidder machine. One locomotive, No. 2411, was a 2-8-0 steam engine built in November 1915 by the Vulcan Iron Works of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Originally purchased by the Gulf Pine Lumber Company of Pasco County as No. 3, it was sold to Grove-Dowling before 1927 and moved to Gulf Hammock. As the Great Depression set in, the Grove-Dowling Hardwood Company went into receivership on March 3, 1930, and its holdings were acquired by the Robinson Land & Lumber Company of Alabama, owned by A.M. McInnis, W.H. Paterson, and J.J. McIntosh. In 1937, the company was renamed the Paterson-McInnis Lumber Company, or Pat-Mac. In 1956, the saw mill was destroyed by fire. On October 18, 1969, Georgia-Pacific deeded land to the Levy County Board of County Commissioners, which established a wayside park, and Pat-Mac donated Vulcan locomotive No. 2411 to the Florida Department of Transportation for display. By resolution dated February 4, 1992, ownership of the locomotive passed to the Levy County Board of County Commissioners.