Louisiana Long Leaf Lumber Company

In 1948, my father was sent to Fisher, LA for a month to further his knowledge of the lumber business. In 1946, he had been given northern Indiana as a territory to sell lumber on a commission basis for Exchange Sawmills of Kansas City, MO. We began his training trips by spending a month in the summer of 1947 at Clarks, LA, where Mother, Dad and I lived in the mill manager’s home while the manager was on vacation. At that mill, I got my first train ride, on a log train. Dad and I rode the engine cab one way and the caboose the other. I was seven years old and pretty happy about the whole thing. I am sure you know how riding the footplate is a memory that stays with you. Ride number two was at Greenfield Village in 1982 and the last was at Kew Bridge Steam Museum in London in 1989.

The stay at Fisher was in an old hotel room with a wash bowl and pitcher. There was no train ride at that mill, but I did climb around two old locomotives parked out in the mill’s yard. I was thinking about those days today and a search of the 4L mill brought up your page on their No. 7 locomotive. I have six snapshots my father took of those two locos. One, looking to be in bad shape, is No. 6. The other, which might have been operable, has no visible number. Both might be sisters to No. 7, or the numberless one might be No.7 before a refit.

I don’t claim that the Louisiana locos had much to do with it, but I have a lifelong interest in all things mechanical and became a mechanical engineer by profession. I am writing to offer to do a high resolution scan of my pictures and send them to you for your collection. Let me know if you want me to do it.

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Dad had a folding Kodak. I am sure it had a viewfinder that allowed the camera to do landscape format, but I suppose he did not take enough pictures to think about it.

I magnified the builder plate on the loco with the tender. I can’t really see the Baldwin name, but I think the number might be 31063, which would make it No. 7 before the number was painted on the cab. It looks more or less intact, while No. 6 looks like it is ready to be parted out. I think the 4L sawmill is gone, replaced by a Boise Cascade pulp mill. A rail line runs past the pulp mill, but there is no spur for loading. It seems that they only use trucks now. The big southern yellow (long leaf) pine trees are probably all gone. The sat view of Fisher, LA shows the woods near the mill are made of trees planted in rows. They would be one of the fast-growing pulp varieties.

The date is summer of 1948 and the location is Louisiana Long Leaf Lumber Co., in Fisher, LA. The kid is me.

Larry