| Alpha-Numeric Key: | CK-350 |
| Corporate Name: | Southern Pine Lumber Company Logging Front |
| Local Name: | |
| Owner Name: | Southern Pine Lumber Company Logging Front at Fastrill |
| Location: | Fastrill, adjacent to the Neches River |
| County: | Cherokee |
| Years in Operation: | 19 years |
| Start Year: | 1922 |
| End Year: | 1940 |
| Decades: | 1920-1929,1930-1939,1940-1949 |
| Period of Operation: | 1922 to 1940 |
| Town: | Fastrill |
| Company Town: | 1 |
| Peak Town Size: | 600 at its peak |
| Mill Pond: |  |
| Type of Mill: | Logging Camp
 Sawmill |
Pine Sawmill |
Hardwood Sawmill |
Cypress Sawmill |
| Planer |
Planer Only |
Shingle |
Paper |
| Plywood |
Cotton |
Grist |
Unknown |
 Other |
|
|
|
|
| Power Source: | Probably steam
| Horse |
Mule |
Oxen |
Water |
| Water Overshot |
Water Turbine |
Diesel |
Unknown |
| Pit |
Steam |
Steam Circular |
Steam Band |
| Gas |
Electricity |
Other |
|
|
| Maximum Capacity: | |
| Capacity Comments: | 50,000,000 timber feet per year |
| Produced: |
| Rough Lumber |
Planed Lumber |
Crossties |
Timbers |
| Lathe |
Ceiling |
Unknown |
Beading |
| Flooring |
Paper |
Plywood |
Particle Board |
| Treated |
Other |
| |
|
| Equipment: | Logging, animals, logging tram, locomotives and log cars |
| Company Tram: | |
| Associated Railroads: | Angelina & Neches River tram |
| Historicial Development: | Southern Pine Lumber Company, the mammoth lumber milling operation at Diboll, Angelina County, operated its major logging camp at Fastrill, in Cherokee County. Fastrill, of all the dozens of logging camps operated by Southern Pine, was unique for its size, its permanence, and the length of its operation.
Most of the houses had four rooms, with back and front porches. Smaller families had two-room houses. The community consisted of a four-teacher school, a two-story boarding house, a post office, a commissary, a voting precinct. The commissary was first located in a boxcar, then in a series of box cars, and finally all under one roof: a grocery, meat market, dry goods and shoe department, ice house, the post office, drug store, and doctor's office. The black quarters had a combination school-church. The company provided land, implements, and animals for local gardens and a canning plant for their produce. Recreation was diverse: from the swimming and fishing in the Neches to drinking at the Gouge- Eye Saloon.
Four woods crews normally worked out of Fastrill. The woods train left at six in the morning. Boarding-house workers were cooking by four to feed the men before they left. Mules dragged the logs to Fastrill, where they were loaded onto the company railroad, the Texas Southeastern.
|
| Research Date: | MCJ 01-31-96 |
| Prepared By: | M. Johnson |