Research: Tram & Railroad Database

Code: 316
Corporate Name: Thompson-Ford Lumber Company
Folk Name:
Incorporated:
Ownership: Thompson-Ford Lumber Company
Years of Operation: 1907 to ca. 1928
Track Type:
Standard Gauge Wooden Rails
Track Length: Three
Locations Served: Two miles south of Sour Lake, in Hardin County.
Counties of Operation:
Line Connections:
Track Information:
Tram Road Logging / Industrial Common Carrier Logging Camp
Equipment: Keeling: three miles of tram road
History: When the Frisco Lumber Company had cut out two miles away at Sour Lake, one of its owners, A. C. Ford, joined forces with the prominent Thompson lumber family and organized Thompson-Ford to locate timber and profit. The new mill was located two miles south of Sour Lake at the juncture of the St. Louis & San Franciso and the Southern Pacific railroads. The milltown was named Grayburg, according to the American Lumberman, not only because "the name is euphonious and easy to remember," but "chiefly because all of the buildings in the town will be painted gray." Operations began in February 1907, in a double band mill in a 56'x174' building. Steam power was provided by five boilers (72” diax18' long Casey-Hedges), each having separate 36” dia.x 96' high stacks. A Stanwood and Gamble 18x24 500-horsepower twin engine powered the manchinery. The log slide from pond to mill was 300 feet long. Band saws were 14 inch Twin Diamond Iron Works with Simonds blades and Allis-Chalmers carriages. Daily cutting capacity was 500,000 feet in a day and night run. Five dry kilns were provided for aging the lumber. Hoses, pumps, pipes, and four "watchmen" provided fire protection. A 72 foot by 140 foot building housed the planing mill with two boilers and stacks three feet wide and 100 feet high. It is known that the company tram was twenty miles long.