The sawmill museum in Longleaf, Louisiana preserves a nearly intact piece of the state’s timber heritage—one that helped reshape both the landscape and the economy. The Southern Forest Heritage Museum offers a rare window into a bygone era when lumber towns dotted the map and longleaf pine forests were rapidly clearcut in the early twentieth century.
louisiana’s logging past
A century ago, sawmill towns like Longleaf were common across Louisiana. “These were independent communities, and within Louisiana, there were up to 1,300 of these,” said Jim Barnett, a retired forestry researcher and now Secretary-Treasurer of the museum’s board. “It’s amazing how many of these have completely disappeared.”
Barnett recalled a local saying that captured the scale of deforestation: “You stand on a stump in Alexandria and look toward Leesville, and you wouldn’t see a tree between here and Leesville.” The two Louisiana towns are located about 60 miles apart.
Longleaf sawmill operated for 75 years
The Longleaf sawmill operated from 1894 until its sudden closure in 1969. Remarkably, it remained largely untouched in the years that followed. “It was just overgrown with timber, with vines and shrubbery, and you wouldn’t even know anyone was here,” Barnett said. That abandonment helped preserve it. The site was later donated to the Southern Forest Heritage Museum, which has since restored key parts of the facility.
tracks, timber and technology at sawmill museum
The museum offers more than static displays. Visitors can ride the “Doodle Bug,” a restored 1937 rail car powered by a Ford V-8 engine, along a loop through the historic site. The mill once operated the Red River and Gulf Railroad, and the museum retains three of its locomotives.
sawmill museum featured on tv
Watch this Heart of Louisiana story on the Southern Forest Heritage Museum.
Also on display is one of the last known four-drum lumber skidders in the U.S.—a massive, rail-mounted machine capable of dragging felled logs from four directions. “What they didn’t knock down, they tore up,” said museum manager Doug Rhodes, referring to the damage such machines inflicted on surrounding vegetation.
lumber skidder today at sawmill museum site
Inside the sawmill itself, visitors can still see the massive steel blade used to cut raw timber, along with the original hand lever that operated it. Nearby, the old machine shop remains fully equipped with belt-driven, steam-turned-electric tools that once produced parts for mill and railroad operations.
a legacy of renewal
But the museum is more than a tribute to industry—it’s also a testament to forest recovery. Barnett, who helped guide reforestation efforts, noted, “The timber that they’re cutting now is the third or the fourth forest from the original forest that was cut.” At Longleaf, the story of Louisiana’s sawmill era comes full circle—from clear-cut devastation to careful, sustainable regrowth.
getting there
77 Longleaf Rd, Longleaf, LA 71448
The Southern Forest Heritage Museum is located at 77 Longleaf Rd, Longleaf, LA. Click here for the museum’s website for information on schedule and tours. Phone: (318) 748-8404.
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