Louisiana Cypress Lumber Company

This southeast Louisiana steam hauler operated a cypress lumber mill on the south side of Ponchatoula, La, as well as a patchwork of track that extended out into the numerous cypress swamps east of the Illinois Central Railroad's main line. A standard gauge lumber operation, the pike was the reincarnation of the previous Williams Lumber Company operation. It operated in Tangipahoa Parish with the new name Louisiana Cypress Lumber until around 1955, when most of the cypress stock was removed from the swamps. Remarkably, all three of the mill's light steamers survive today in some form: #1 is stored in pieces in a private collection in Georgia; #2 was purchased by the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in 1960 and remains in their collection; #3 is on display in downtown Ponchatoula, next to the Canadian National (ex IC/ICG) mainline.