| History: | W.G. Ragley and J.C. Saner incorporated the Saner-Ragley Lumber Company on October 14, 1913. J.C. Saner was president; J.M. Bemis, vice-president; Frank Ragley, secretary; and W.G. Ragley, treasurer and general manager. The company owned a 10,000 acre tract of virgin pine forest, and it constructed its mill in northwestern Polk County, one mile south from the old Cameron mill, to cut this timber. The sawmill plant was complete, including a planing mill, dry kilns, large log pond, electric light plant, commissary, and logging railroad. The mill possibly closed in late 1931 or early 1932. It operated for a time during World War II and shortly thereafter.
A very insightful documentary of Saner-Ragley's Carmona sawmill appeared in the May 1931 issue of The Journal of Geography. It provides unsurpassed, descriptive details about life in a typical Southern sawmill town. Carmona was a typical Texas sawmill town in the 1920s. The lumber company provided housing and all the essentials of life to its workers, but offered little opportunity for advancement or betterment of life. A sawmill worker lived in a company house, was paid in company money, ate company food, and was buried in a company coffin for which he himself may have cut the wood. One of the mill ponds was used as an auxiliary pond, and it was larger than all the rest. Company families often swam, fished, and hunted at these ponds.
The logging tram stretched from four to eight miles as the timber was cut out. Neither Strapac nor Keeling have information about this mill's tram equipment.
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