Eros and the Tremont Lumber Company

I did something while trying to add to the first page which completely fried it.

This is the replacement page. I don't re-do well, so this will be bland.

Excuse me while I throw a couple of spikes at the wall.

I'll give it a go:

This one started because Marion sent me some shots of Eros, La. and I wanted to be there.

It's a ways from the house, but because the weather was perfect and I was feeling invincible, I took off on what would amount to a 9 hour, 350 mile ride into north Louisiana. The route is not important now, I ended up on US 167 north of Alexandria at a place called Packton. It was where Buchanan's Louisiana and Arkansas Railroad took off to Ferriday, La., near the Mississippi, River.

I'd followed the rails through the Kisatchie National Forest.

I hadn't seen a train, which I found odd.

The rails appeared to be rusty and overgrown with grass in

some places.

I thought that they were being abandoned or something corrosive had been leaking on them.

I found this while researching the 2nd page.

"Confederate States Army defeated a Union detachment sent to destroy a salt works in the parish. Winn Parish contributed to the $80,000 raised to build fortifications on the nearby Red River". So, there was a salt "works" nearby. I knew there was a quarry near Winnfield, where I was headed.

That was just a coincidence. I think the rails are rusty for lack of use.

One more little story concerning Packton. It mentions the depot.

Walker had bought the adjacent 80 acres located in the W/2 - SE/4 same

section on 3/02/1908 from his mother (Laura) as noted in records P/374

prior to their marriage in 1908. After they married, both lived at the same

home location until they died. All of their children were born here.

Subsistence was by farming and livestock. He also grew ribbon cane and

operated a syrup mill powered by a Ford flathead until the early 1960's.

Walker also was a fur trapper, sawman on logging crews and horticulturist

who imported/grafted/planted numerous fruit trees in the local area. As an

accomplished woodworker, he built two houses for his family, much of their

furniture and built coffins used for area burials.

With eight children to raise, he also operated a creekbank still at various

times, making whiskey/rum during Prohibition days for cash sale to railroad

customers at Packton Depot. Never got caught.

I crossed them one more time before going into Winnfield.

There's the grass I as talking about.

There is a large lumber business at the rail crossing going

into Winnfield. This is "Stop 1". Ignore the rest of it.

Trucks lining up.

I asked Marion about the operation here.

His reply:

Log trucks.Today is the day for Long wood or tree length wood for the paper mills. As a kid growing up the standard pulp wood stick was 8 feet long,this fit the early wagons and trucks. 2 sticks end to end could be laid across a rail car and not hang on signals and telegraph poles. Short wood, as we called it, was inherently expensive as it required a lot of labor to handle. Enter the tree length operations and the mechanical harvester. Trees are cut and stacked by a large wheeled machine which cuts off the limbs and leaves just the tip of the top. Trees are stacked or bundled into truck size loads. All with out being touched by human hand. The trucks are loaded with mechanical equipment and sent on their way. That is what you see on the highways. At the mill site, the wood is unloaded with a GIANT fork lift, one truck load at the time and stacked. Look up Big Red Stackers, Taylor, Miss. When the wood is needed the stacker picks up a truck load and places it on a slasher deck which cuts the tree length in two and sends it to the barking drum. The barking drum is a large steel barrel about 20 ft in dia.by 100 feet long. As the drum rolls over and over the wood fed into it beats against each other and beats off the bark that falls through holes in the side of the drum. When the 20 ft long stick of skinned wood comes out of the drum it is fed into a 1,500 hp chipper which converts to a pile of chips in 3 seconds!!!! Count the number of logs on one truck,multiply by the number of truck, multiplied by 6 seconds, and you know how long it takes to start that whole line of truck loads into the beginning of a sheet of A4 copy paper. More later.

Thanks you, Marion.

From the crossing this is looking west, where I was headed.

More trucks lining up.

At the far west side of town I went south on US84 and crossed

the L&A Railroad. Seeing anything say "L&A" was a first.

Looking below.

Trying to figure out how to get down there.

I compromised and went out on the bridge. Getting through

Winnfield required quite a cut in the hill.

Below was very pretty. This was Buchanan's route into

Winnfield from Minden, La., and Stamps, Arkansas.

A little about how he got here.

Buchanan was bent on expanding the empire he had begun in Stamps,

Arkansas starting with the Bodcaw milling operation he had purchased from

C.T. Crowell officially on January 14,1889, expanding southward to

Springhill, Louisiana (formerly Barefoot, LA) where he established the Pine

Woods Lumber Company in 1894. The next move some 30 miles south to the town

of Minden, Louisiana was in 1901, and a year later his "logging line"

chugged into Winnfield, Louisiana, and took time on his way to Trout to

absorb Grant Timber and Manufacturing Co. interests near Selma, Louisiana.

In a span of fourteen years Buchanan had established five major lumber mills

across the Deep South, followed two years later adding the Good Pine mill

and eight years later the Tall Timber mill was added to the fold.

I had wondered about there being a mill in Winnfield.

Where I was back on US 167, the fist stop, seemed to be

the obvious spot. Below are shots of mills and operations

in the 1940's and '50's.

That's it for the make up page. You think this one had

information on it.

Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for the Winnfield write has waned. I had to re-do page one which I found a drag. That bled off the steam I had accumulated for page two, this one. Besides that, I have a page 3 to do. As long as it's raining .............. I'll carry on.

After finding the L&A overpass and rails, I was stoked.

Open this in a new window, put it on the side and read along.

I'll break it down. I went down South St from the overpass

headed east. South St. led to a rail yard back when. I turned

south on Hodges. (you will find mistakes because right now,

I don't care)

---------------------------------------------------------

Laurel Heights Baptist Church

San Pedro and Hodges.

This was the weirdest church I'd ever seen. But it's

been here a long time. I found many references to it looking

as burial records. Bet ya didn't know I do burial records?

I went left (east) on Halsey St. until I came to the tracks

at W. Boundary which runs north and south.

I was now on W. Boundary looking back south where

I'd crossed. Historically, there were two sets of rails

crossing here.

To the south west were these homes. Many were typical

pyramid houses commonly used in mill towns. I think, if you

Google the name, you'll find he was a player in the industry.

Oh, you might not see it. "Hodges" is the name of the a street.

As I said, I went up West Boundary, crossed the tracks

and shot the Winnfield Cemetery on Allen and W.Boundary.

Below was taken from West Boundary looking at the tracks and

Allen St., where I'd go east, following the rails.

From West Boundary (cemetery) looking back west.

You can see there was room for another set of tracks.

From West Boundary looking east. Again, plenty of room

for 3 sets. Notice all the new blacktop. I'll bet it was a mess.

I went east on Allen St. until I came to S. St. Johns St. There

I saw the boxcar and headed south to investigate. I turned

right (west) on James St. that crossed the ghost yard.

This is how things have changed. First shot is now. Next is

in the 70's.

2009 version.

Allen Street has been moved. St. James St. did not exist.

1970's version.

This is from S.St. James. The concrete slab was rail yard

associated. I'll go ahead and say it now. I read that the

L&A depot was moved to its present location on a previous

Tremont and Gulf RR branch which is not a authentic location.

I think the original L&A depot was near here. Why the

concrete? The boxcar was being used for storage.

Looking at the map above:

To the left of where you see "Boxcar" written is the middle

switch below "Cemetery". This is it.

Walking east you see the orange boxcar to the left. On the

map it should be where you see "Boxcar", appropriately.

OK, experts, what does "X" signify? (the 24th letter in the alphabet)

You are funny.

On the ground were the leavings of past rails.

There's that "X" with the boxcar behind it. I was taught

to take a lot of shots and not to worry about redundancy.

This is micro tourism done right. Thanks Ray Fagan.

There had been a pit or hole here. It had been filled with old ties.

Could it have been a scale or inspection pit?

Rails lay around on another cement pad. I got sloppy here

and should have done a better job. I hadn't thought of the

depot yet.

Past the box car, the rails to the right split.

They were headed east. This is looking back to the switch.

That high radio? tower would be to the right.

They continued across S. Jones (La.34) at one time and I think

they were part of the wye or wyes that went north to where

the depot is now, on the old Tremont branch.

This is taken from "15" looking east across La.34. I should

have investigated going east but there was no street. The

area of the wye seemed to have been just open space.

Had some thing besides the wye been there? For those

that don't know what a wye is, imagine a "Y" being tracks.

"16 to "18" represent the bottom of an inverted "Y" formation.

Now you get it, huh? Ready for some football?

I walked back west past the boxcar and "X" sign that now

showed "WX" going west (ah, west X?).

Leaving, I stopped and took a few more shots of the boxcar

which I discovered was being used as a storage building.

It was locked up.

This is for the number takers. 13113

I'm a little confused on this one. I continued my ride down

La.34 to Rock Island Road which went east, far below the

tracks. This may have been taken from "16" and those tracks

going to the left go to the depot up on Front St. That is

the only thing that makes sense in trying to coordinate

my shots with my waypoints.

Now drop down to where you see "Pinecrest Rec. Center".

I went east there on Rock Island Rd. Now, I was thinking,

"could this name have something to do with the quarry"?

No, it has something to do with the Rock Island Railroad.

The RI had a route from Winnfield to Packton. That I know,

I've seen its rails in Packton. (Al saw them, too) That's

the red line to the right.

I came to Front Street and went north. Then, after seeing

a pair of protruding rails...........

I turned around going south on Front St. and marked where

these rails protruded from the east. I wondered what they were.

"19" marks the cut off rails. They stopped at Front St. but

the ROW continued. I traced them all the way to US 71,

far to the west. (I traced them on my map)

They are the ones to the left. The Rock Island's

was the red line going southeast to Packton.

They were the stub of what is left of Edenborn's

entry into Winnfield. I'll try to find an account

of his battles with the Longs to get it done.

This quote I got somewhere, "But Emden,

Alonzo, and Lofton were named by a unique

German immigrant, who came to America in

search of a better life and ended up being a

$90 million dollar man". You can see those

names along my traced route south. Read

Fair's book on the L&A. It is fascinating.

You can see that Aloha is on the main Shreveport

to Alexandria line. I found a couple of connections

with Aloha.

We'll get to the Longs later.

"James E. Tyson and his second wife (Allbright) had at least one son and

one daughter. Edward Barney (5/07/1869 - 12/24/1953) who moved to the Aloha

area of Grant Parish and was an overseer for William Edenborn. He married a

daughter of Sabre Moore McBride. Daughter Caledonia (10/18/1860 - 10/06/1913)

married Huey P. Long,Sr and was the mother of Huey and Earl Long and

grandmother of Russell Long. Laura Tyson Melton was their half-sister".

That, from Here.

Below are some shots from the vicinity of "18" on the map.

I guess you can see I've lost interest.

I headed up Front St. to the depot totally by accident.

I've noticed how if a street next to a railroad is not named

"Railroad", it is named "Front". Why's that? Because it

fronts on the RR?

Next, I'd find the depot. I hadn't found the depot before

because it had been MOVED. I researched the Tremont

and Gulf RR and the list of towns it served. There was a

short between my ears. Why would a L&A RR depot be

on a T&G RR branch? Aesthetics. Better than no rails,

and the L&A might have taken them over? What do I

know?

"The Louisiana Political History Museum located at 499 East Main Street, Winnfield, Louisiana, is considered on the state's hidden treasures. The museum, itself, is housed in an abandoned Louisiana and Arkansas Railroad Depot and Warehouse which was relocated to the Main Street site. Built 1908".

Bingo.

See the car back there?

The rail car, Al.

How's that? See it better? These rails went to Ruston at one time.

Tannehill, Dodson, Jonesborro, Hodge, Quitman and Ruston.

Below is looking back at wye near "16" on the map.

Heading up Front Street, I came to the inevitable in Winnfield,

a shine to the Longs. It was a moment.

We all know what scourges they were. The present President

is a progressive populist in their mold and out for the same reward.

How ya'll doin? I want to steal everything from you. Bye now.

Huey died a violent death. He had come "that close" to

being president, having been a one term senator.

Read about him HERE

History repeats itself, doesn't it!

Here we are in a recession bordering on a depression and we

have exactly what is not needed, another progressive economic

repair kit. Where would we be if Roosevelt's or Long's policies had continued?

The growth in government was staggering. That news seems recent.

Now they have your health in their grasp. Huey Long would be proud.

I crossed the rails going east on US 84.
I'd almost forgotten about the quarry. That will be for

the next time. I've been there, but that was 1969 on

a geologic field trip.

The limestone quarry is west of town at the lake.

Where the salt works were, I don't know, but a picture

makes me think it was nearby.

"The endless salt supply surrounding Winnfield has made the city aleader in salt production since the Civil War days when the old salt kettlesat Big Cedar furnished salt for the Confederate army by use of slave labor (the major Civil War era source of salt in this area was the Salt Works located on Saline Bayou in extreme northwest Winn Parish.) Today, a Carey salt mine with 840 feet depth is located near Winnfield. The rock quarry is a third source of income to the enterprising city".

Could that incline be negotiated by a steam engine?

Very possibly, this looks like a Shay. They could pull.

There are a few more loose ends.

History

When Winn Parish was officially formed by the state legislature in 1852, Winnfield was established as the parish seat.

During the Civil War, the area around Winnfield was the site of some minor skirmishes. Confederate forces defeated a Union detachment sent to destroy the salt works in the area. Many Civil War bandits made the region their home. Among these were the West and Kimbrill Clans which at one time included the Frank & Jesse James.

Winnfield was the home of three Louisiana governors: Huey "Kingfish" Long, Oscar K. Allen and Earl K. Long. Huey became Governor, U.S. Senator, and challenged Franklin Roosevelt for Presidency in 1932. He was killed in 1935. O.K. Allen was elected governor in 1932. Earl "the Louisiana Longshot" held more state jobs than any other Louisianian. Earl long was elected governor in 1939, 1948 and 1956. He was elected to Congress in 1960 but died while the votes were being counted.

I found this while looking for "lumber mills in Winnfield".

Winnfield -- Antoine Lumber Co., 4M. (Hdq. Jonesboro, La.)

Winnfield -- Louisiana Lumber & Mfg. Co., 30M.

Winnfield -- Mansfield Hardwood Lumber Co., 30M. (Hdq. Shreveport, La.)

Winnfield -- Tremont Lumber Co. (Hdq.) See Eros, La. See Jonesboro, La. See Rochelle, La.

The Depot:

The Louisiana Political History Museum located at 499 East Main Street, Winnfield, Louisiana, is considered on the state's hidden treasures. The museum, itself, is housed in an abandoned Louisiana and Arkansas Railroad Depot and Warehouse which was relocated to the Main Street site. Built 1908

From Here

Large map, click to open.

Next, I was headed to Eros. It was 2pm. I got to the intersection of La.34 and US84, how I left Winnfield, and couldn't see the old rail ROW on the map. Duh. At that point I realized I'd have to draw it out at home and then do it manually on the road. I could handle going to Olla and swing down US 165 to get home. That seemed to be the sane thing to do, though I've always allowed insanity into my life without hesitating and riding north w/o a guide seemed possible.

I crossed the rails and headed east. This was the route of

the old Tremont and Gulf RR to its mills along US165.

La.124 left US 84. I crossed a huge area of forest. 124

hits 125 which I feel is the original US 165. I went north

east into Olla which is right above where you see "65".

I didn't think to figure out what kind of cars these were.

Looking around.

Notice the steam engine on the left, Indians, and a building

that I shot near the Citgo station. Oops, there's more.

A gusher oil well and something else?

My chain was making a little noise so I visited the Citgo

station for some oil. The lady across the counter

immediately started asking me about her grandson's moped.

The last reincarnation was the "Style Center". It looks like a bank.

It was in the mural.

After leaving Olla and not asking any questions when I

had the chance, I moved on. I guess I was worried about

my bike and her grandson's moped. She had thrown me

off my game.

I went into Urania looking for the mill I remembered Marion

saying was still there. The fact that I remembered is awing.

The arrow says, "Population 792. Good People and a few old KNOTHEADS".

"Knots" are a very hard part of a tree.

I was at Hardner Road. He is given a lot of credit for implementing

reforestation.

I saw the stack and figured that was the mill.

Back to Urania I went to look around a little.

That's the La. Pacific Building, now closed.

I left Urania on some road and tried to find where the siding

had gone into the mill. I failed, but was close. My gps hadn't

shown it like this map (below) does? Ok, I missed it.

In leaving Urania, I totally missed Tullos. I looked, but Tullos

did not show up on my map, either.

OK, I missed it. What a lost opportunity.

This is the Little River on US 165. What I didn't know

was that it was the location of Rochelle, an important

Tremont property. I've been out on that bridge. It is old

US 165. Now there is a gate blocking entrance.

See Rochelle right above where I have "WYE" written.

Next time there I'll give it another try and see Tullos,

also. I think that's where the pig roast recipe came

from, along with the biscuits.

There's a closeup.

I rode over there and got on old US 165.

At some point I shot the rails.

The road turned to gravel. I guess I was in the NF.

Obviously, I needed to shoot the rails again? I was looking

attentively at the map. I saw a wye going east. It continued

over the Little River and beyond. Below, you can see I rode

it to where "Grandstaff" was located. Private property

stopped me.

This is the ROW looking east from US 165. Gee, I know

someone knows what these rails were.

And, it continued.

There had been a small yard associated with it.

As I approached Georgetown, I decided to give finding

all that was left of the Louisiana Midland my best shot.

I hadn't come in this way before. I had immediate success

at finding the connectors between the old Missouri Pacific

and the LM.

Cars were on the feeder to the LM going west..

Here's looking back to the north to where the feeder connected to

the MP.

Here's looking back at the feeder going west from a better angle.

Those rails were headed to Packton, so this ride in essence,

makes a full circle, railly.

This is looking south on the old Missouri Pacific. I knew

I'd get lucky at some point. A grand finale it would be.

It is crossing where I estimate the LM and L&A crossed it.

I whacked the camera and got it to de-zoom.

After that I went east and then south crossing the LM,

which was originally part of Buchanan's Louisiana and

Arkansas RR.

At the crossing, I looked east. Whoa!

And, I looked west. Whoa, again.

Someone I know is lusting after this little tug.

I was pretty fried. I was happy to ride in the shade going

south on US 165. That's all this shot is about.

I stopped at the rest stop above Opelousas. I was pretty

tweaked and needed to straighten up. I ate a little and

drank the rest of my water.

I looked around and wondered at what a great state this

is with its so different parts and people.

It and our country are worth saving. Don't let the crowd

in Washington succeed at what they are attempting.

The Democratic Party has been taken over by radicals.

That's the nice word. They are Communist. They want

to make you a number more than their kind have already.

Don't let Obama and crew put a hammer and sickle on our flag.