The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-10-22
FLoR1pAL LuMRER TRADE.
Its Increasing Importance and RapI,
Uavatouw.ana

Its EncreRstng Importance and Rapid
Development.
or the industries Of the south next
in importance 70 the cotton-manufae-
ture is the lumber busiaess-the pine
regions of the southern seaboaFd now
furnishing immense supplies for north
ern and foreign consumption, as well as
for the south herself. Years ago, tn
hardly lumbermen from Canada and
Maine were in the habit of making
annual winter raids on the southern
coast, penetrating often into the inte-
ri0r, and monopolizing the profits of
this trade. But, since the war, south
ern men, aided by northern means, have
turned their attention to this source of
wealth, and numerous immense saw
mills, with new and improved machine
~, have been erected, and the some
what harsh music IF the saw has awak-
ened the echoes in sylvan sOlitudes hith-
erto resounding only the cries of the
Wild animals that peOpled them.
Along the coasts of Georgia, Alabama,
and FlOrida, both the axes and the saw
mills are now busy, annually sending
forth many millions Of feet of hewn and
sawn lumber and timber TO the utter
most ends of the earth.
A brief outline of what is doing in
this way at one point alone, in the re-
mote region of Pensacola and Perdido
bay, In West Florida, viii give the for
eign reader a faint idea Of the rapid
growth and great proportions this COM
Daratlyely new southern industry is at
tanning.
The writer visited Perdido bay last
summer. A narrow-gauge railway ten
I~o raI
bay with the fine harbor of Pensacola,
which in the autumn and winter season
is now filled with lumber-vessels of all
Municipalities while Pensacola, which
has literally arisen from its ashes since
the war, is now rapidly becoming q
thriving little city from the effects of
this trade. For two years succeeding
the war, Pensacola, which had been
burned down, was deserted, weeds grew
up in her streets, and the fox and Wild
turkey abode there. Then the scattered
fugitives began to return, and some of
the more energetic among them COM
menced rebuilding the saw-mills which
had been destroyed, and from these
small seeds sprang mp the trade which
now already exports values to the
amount of upward of two million dol
lars per annum. Perdido (or LOST bay,
so called from its having no navigable
outlet, is now the centre Of a great
movement in timber cutting, and on its
banks, four years since solitary in saw
age wildness, are now six large saw
mills, and two additional monster ones
IN course of construction. In size, cost,
and perfection of machinery, these new
saW-mills are unsurpassed anywhere.
Their enterprising owners, northwestern
nen, have bought principality, in ex-
tent two hundred thousand acres, from
the state of Alabama, lying on the OPP
posite side of PerdidO bay, that being
the boundary between Florida and Ala
bama. and will conduct operations on a
grand scale. The consequence of this
new industry has been already to treble
the trade and commerce of Pensacola,
with an ever-increasing tendency. Her
shipping lists for the year before last
showed one hundred and two ships,
eleven hundred and twenty three barks,
seventy-fiye brigs, and three hundred
schooDers, all due to the lnmber-busi-
ness, since Pensacola is not a cotton
port, owing to its location. 1t was con-
fidently anticipated that the trade would
be doubled during the year Just passed.
The bay of Perdido is we'll worthy of
q visit by tourist or traveller, for its nat
ural beauties are very great. Its mir
rOr-like expanse of uLrutfied water,
land-locked, crescent shaped, with in-
denbed cnrves, is friDged on its farther
side by dark array of pines, with their
sombre green foliage and straight shafts
shooting thirty feet into the air without
a limb below. The primeval forest, un-
disturbed as vet by the axe, and with
ont human habitations, alone is visible.
The bay. not being navigable, has no
craft of any kind on its broad bosom
save a miniature steamer employed for
transporting RATS of logs over its shall
low surface.
But looking around you, as you stand
on the nearer side, you observe the
marks of civilization and progress in
the mills, plying ceaselessly their busy
saws, the piles of hewn and sawn timber,
and the growing village and wOrkmen' s
houses constituting a respectable set
tl, ment, within the limits of which
liquor is forbidden to be sold by the
restrictive law, self-imposed in this new
Maine in the southern wilderness. But
eight years since this spot was a wilder
ness without q single habitation, the
haunt of the bear and the panther.
The following extract from an address
recently delivered on the completion of
a railroad to it in 1872, by MIR. Camp
bell, leading lawyer of Pensacola,
draws q curious picture of a locality in
the heart of a region discovered by
Ponce de Leon three centuries ago, and
within six miles of one of the oldest
settlements in the state:
"In the dawn of this enterprise,
when Millview was a wilderness, and the
track of the panther was still on its soil,
some men might have been seen trying
to finish by night cabin they had COM
neneed to build IN the morning. Near
by was q woman seated on a log, pa
tiently awaiting the completion of the
shelter under which she was, through
her thrift, smiles, and counsels, 10 make
glad the heart of her husband. That
husband is my friend DR.. Mclean, the
miIl-pioneer OF perdido, who, thus
cheered and sustained, is, after many
trials, now on the verge of nfiluence,
and that woman, his wife, a lady who
honors me by permitting me to cali hel
my friend"
This is no picture Of the earlier set
| Element, but dates back eight year,
/ only.-Fra8eT's Magazine.