By Mary Curtis

I had a visit the other day from my friend Joe Buckley.

I missed those years when Joe was employed with the railroad and therefore did not know much of the history.

I enjoyed reading the book and thanks to Joe, my article today will be from The Longleaf Companion, as written by Anthony Mozingo.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, south Mississippi‘ s forest of longleaf virgin yellow pine trees stood on the hills of Mississippi from the Mississippi Delta to the Gulf of Mexico.

As the nation grew, it turned to this untapped reserve to supply timber for housing and industry.

Soon the mass production of lumber and other resources gained the attention of industries around the world and they began to look at this area in earnest.

Among the first of the big lumber companies to recognize the commercial value of the longleaf pine was J. J. Newman Lumber Company.

One of the first new railroads that Newman company built was laid out due west from Hattiesburg and began as a dummy line. It was soon named Pearl and Leaf River Railroad.

By early 1901, this hilly logging railroad had been extended for 12 miles.

In 1902, the railroads main line was extended to Sumrall, a small settlement consisting of a handful of families.

By the end of 1902 the railroad was again extended another 30 miles to the town of Blountville, which later became Prentiss.

Like so many other towns in south Mississippi, the towns of Sumrall and Prentiss owe their existence to the coming of the railroad.

During those days huge longleaf pine logs were transported on the railroad to Newman Sawmill.

Investors began accepting contracts for the virgin pine lumber and transporting it to markets around the world.

As the years rolled on, fortunes were made and lost along what is now Longleaf Trace.

But as suddenly as the timber industry had grown, the timber supplies began to dwindle.

The first victims were the small, independent sawmills, soon followed by all but a few of the larger ones.

The 1920’s witnessed two significant events that impacted the Mississippi Central Railroad: the construction of the Hercules Powder Plant and the invention of a product called Masonite, in the nearby city of Laurel.

But for these events, the city of Laurel would have faded into history like most of the other small towns in Mississippi did after the timber had been cut.

The Great Depression of the 1930s hit Mississippi especially hard and that great crisis continued with the cutting of most of the trees in the Piney Woods.

The legacy of the timber industry in the piney woods of south Mississippi is deep and rich.

By 1970 Mississippi railroad was losing money by the day and was sold to Illinois Central Railroad.

As the ensuing years went by, all but a few miles of the railroad line was abandoned.

In 1999, several community leaders in south Mississippi had the foresight to protest the complete abandonment of the railroad line.

It was their vision that grew and enabled the Mississippi Legislature to save the trail for what later became the Longleaf Trace.

Today the 43 Mile stretch of the Mississippi Railroad is a simple walking, biking, hiking trail enjoyed by locals and visitors alike.

Its many miles is the legacy of an era that is forever gone but remembered by many of the men and women who fought to preserve it for another day and another use for the generations to come.