By James Ronald Skains
Journal Correspondent

Former Allen Parish English, Art and Drama teacher Claudia Troll is making the Southern Forest Heritage Museum come alive as Director of the Southern Forest Heritage Museum at Longleaf.

"I think it is very important to tell the lifestyle story of the people who lived and worked at the Crowell Lumber Company mill in Longleaf," Mrs. Troll told the Piney Woods Journal.

"The people here at Longleaf lived very much like thousands of others who worked in logging camps and sawmill towns throughout Louisiana," said Troll, who has been at the Heritage Museum since January.\par }{\plain "A heritage center museum should be more than just pictures on the wall and old artifacts," she said. "Visitors to our Museum need to know what the pictures represent and the tools and equipment that were used in the logging of timber and the manufacturing of lumber. They need to know the process and the importance of what occurred in these Louisiana sawmills. Lumber manufactured here in Louisiana was used to build thousands of houses in Chicago, the Midwest and on the east coast. The people who worked in these sawmills contributed greatly to the building of modern-day USA. During World War II, a lot of the lumber that went into building the famous Higgins Boats used in European invasions was cut here at Long Leaf," Troll added.

Crowell Long Leaf Lumber Company operated several mills from 1892 though 1969. The mill at Long Leaf closed in 1969, bringing to an end the activities of lumber manufacturing for the Crowell Company. Other sawmills owned and operated by the Crowells included the mill in central Louisiana at Meridian. It operated from 1913 until 1928 when it was lost to fire.

"We were able to successfully move the original post office from the west side of the railroads tracks to an area near the Commissary building," Troll said. "Two sisters who grew up in Long Leaf still remembered their post office box combination. It was a thrill to watch them open their old post office boxes after all these years. The old post office was built in 1895 with 70 boxes."

"One of our proudest accomplishments recently was to get our education center up and running," Troll explained. "The education center is located in two houses that are probably more than 100 years old. The two houses were joined together to form our education building. We have all the modern technology of a typical 2010 classroom but in a historical building. We have a steady flow of students on field trips to come study the life and times of the residents of an historic sawmill town," Troll pointed out. "Surprisingly, most of the students who visit, already know a lot about Longleaf from lessons taught by their teachers."

"We have a teacher's educational tool box on our website to help the students know something about Long Leaf before they visit," Troll emphasized. "It is interesting to have students ask about seeing certain items here at Long Leaf that they learned about back in their classrooms. We tell the story about a cat who roamed around Long Leaf. We called the cat, Pine Straw, and many of the kids who visit us, want to see Pine Straw."

Crowell Long Leaf Lumber Company operated another mill in the community of Alco from 1928 to 1944. During the heydays of operation, two logging camps furnished the mills with logs. The company-owned Red River and Gulf Railroad brought the logs to the Long Leaf mills for processing into lumber.

At one time, the Red River and Gulf line reached all the way to Lecompte, a distance of about 15 miles, and provided both freight and passenger service up and down its line. At its peak, the road operated some 30 steam locomotives.

"We have a hotel here at Long Leaf once again," Troll said with pleasure. "It's not open to the public but was built for our volunteers who come out to work to improve our facilities on a regular basis. The new Long Leaf Hotel has all the modern day conveniences, running water, flush toilets and kitchen facilities," Troll added. "It was built inside one of the huge metal lumber sheds. It has four bedrooms upstairs with a kitchen, dining and sitting area downstairs."

"My personal pride and joy is the old planer mill which is doing double duty as our theater for the time being," said Troll, who has a Master's degree in the arts from McNeese State University. "We've already had a number of special events at our theater including music shows, weddings, and receptions. We've named our stage, the Whistle Stop Stage," explained Troll, who was a volunteer at the Heritage Center prior to becoming Director. "We are bringing in the City Park Players of Alexandria to put on a stage play later this summer. We did the story of the Headless Horseman last Halloween which we turned into the Headless Woodcutter," Troll noted. "We did some special visual effects and lighting in the old dry kiln building. It was quite a thrill for all the kids."

"We are investigating a story that we recently heard about some local people seeing a UFO landing on the railroad track between Long Leaf and Forest Hill," Troll said with a laugh. "We might incorporate that story into our Halloween event."

The Southern Forest Heritage Museum originated as a project of the Louisiana Chapter of the Society of American Foresters. It was chaired by Henry Parson in the early 1990s. Parson had visited the long unused but surprisingly well preserved mill site by happenstance. Being a long-time member of the forestry community, Parson immediately recognized the significance of restoring the mill site and opening it to the public. The Museum and Research Center was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

"We now have a two-mile railroad track on which to run our enclosed motor car," Troll said. "Everyone seems to have a great experience riding our train. I would like to have a ramp from a loading platform on the railroad at the Whistle Stop Stage at the old planner mill," Troll explained. "We could incorporate it into some of our entertainment events especially on weddings where the bride or groom could make a grand entry or departure."

"Huey Long stopped at Long Leaf on the train back in his campaign days," Troll recounted. "There are so many fun things that we can do with our train."

Most all the restoration work that is done at the Museum is by volunteers. "Without our volunteers, the Museum could not exist. I want to personally thank each volunteer who has contributed to the advancement of the facilities," she said.

One of the educational tools at the Museum is a half mile Interpretive Trail through 10 acres of diverse timber land. There are eight major interpretive plots where tree measurements and ages are shown. The Trail is dedicated to Dr. Norwin Linnartz, a tenured professor in the School of Forestry at LSU. Dr. Linnartz was also very active in the Society of American Foresters on the State, Section and National levels.

"In addition to all the sawmill buildings, we have some old log loaders and steam locomotives on display," Troll explained. "We are all about history, culture, and education but we want to make that a fun event for everyone who visits Long Leaf."

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