By JACK WILLIS
Correspondent

When the powers that be, governing the future of Tremont Lumber Company, decided to cease operations at Rochelle and move, they did just that! In the latter part of 1946 the millwrights and electricians began disassembling all of the equipment that made up a fully functional saw mill, and began loading it onto flat cars and box cars. They then shipped it on the Tremont & Gulf (Tug & Grunt) Rail Line to the new mill site near Joyce, Louisiana.

Even though an upgrade and total reorganization was planned from the old mill's type of operations, which dated from the Thirties, many of the old mechanical components were installed at the new mill site. This was a maneuver designed to cut the costs of relocation and renovation of the mill equipment removed from its old home in Rochelle. The same carriages, both for the ``short'' side and ``long'' side of old mill were implemented into the functions of addressing the first steps of log processing. The two sides were designed to handle different diameter size logs.

Sherman Lafollette was the new mill foreman. They would cut pine logs for the first four days of the week, and then would cut hardwood on the fifth day. The flooring mill had become operational, and it came on line at the same time as the rest of the sawmill operations began. Somewhere along in the mid-fifties the flooring mill caught fire and was totally destroyed. Due to the expense of rebuilding, and also the lack of timber, it was never replaced.

Up until June 6th, 1967 when the plywood division came on line, the mill cut nothing but conventional lumber, S4S and pattern stock. They also cut specialty orders .i.e...6"x 6"x 6', 6"x 6" x 8', 3"x 18" up to 24' in length. The longest orders were cut out of a tract of left over timber from the Rochelle area. Tremont's forests were divided up into three different timber districts. They were Tullos, Joyce and Jackson Parish.

Tremont continued their modus operandi until the fall of 1971. At this time they decided to dispense with the ``short'' side of the mill, and installed a gainer (chipping saw). Two factors figured prominently in this decision. First, the availability of timber. Second, the type of timber. A saw log, that had been considered not much good for anything but a fence post for years, because of it's diminutive size, was suddenly considered a merchantable log.

In the late summer of 1973 Tremont Lumber Company as a name and as a timber and lumber producer ceased to be. The mill and other valuable considerations were sold to Crown Zellerbach. Thus, the operation, which had had humble beginnings at a small spot, named Tremont, on the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific Railroad, six miles west of Monroe, Louisiana was no more. Robert H. Jenks didn't live to witness the cut of the last virgin log, which had been at one time in his ownership; part of an estimated 600,000,000 board feet of lumber. And it was probably just as well. This was the final dissolution of his dream, and he probably wouldn't have liked what he saw.