The Columbus weekly dispatch., 1907-02-21
WORK BEGINS ON
NAM MOTH PLANT
LARGE FORCE OF MEN AT WORK
ON PLANT OF INTERSTATE
LUMBER COMPANY IN
NORTH COLUMBUS.
Will be One OF the Largest Lumber
Companies in the South--A
Large Amount of Money
Now Being Expended.

Work on the mammoth plant of
the Interstate Lumber Company has
commenced. The first thing to be
done will be to prepare the lagoon
where the logs are to be stored. and
in order to comprehend the magni-
tude of the undertaking it is neces-
sary for one to visit the scene and
see the two hundred men at work
with their picks, shovels and scrap
ers. The lagoon will extend from
the northern boundary of the park
to the city water works, and to com
plete the task thousands of cubic feet
of earth will have to be dug up and
carted away. In making the exca-
vations a large deposit of splendid
building sand has been encountered,
and this sand will be used in laying
the cement foundations for the sew
eral large buildings that are 10 be
erected.
The Interstate Lumber Company is
a mammoth concern, and does things
on a big scale. Mr. Smith, the man
ager. has had shipped here a power
ful machine which pulls up by their
roots immense forest trees from thir-
ty to forty feet in height, and the
great forest kings that line the banks
of the LuXapalila viii be wrenched
from the earth and converted. by
means of a portable saw mill, into
timber for the several buildings that
will constitute the plant in its en-
tirety. The machine for removing
the trees from the ground is already
here. and the portable saw mill is ex-
pected to arrive this week.
The owners of the street railway,
who also own Lake Park, have per-
fected arrangements with the lum Der
people whereby water will be carried
by a pipe from the lagoon into the
lake at the park, and an ingenious
system of miniature locks and dams
which keeps the water under control
and regulates the supply to nicely
Will be installed.
This plant, which, as above stated, |
will when completed be one of the
largest of its kind in the country, was
secured for Columbus through the |
enterprise of the Progressive Union
and the generosity of a few public |
spirited citizens. AS is we'll known |
to all readers of The Dispatch, the |
company recently purchased twenty |
thousand acres of valuable timber |
land lying in Lowndes county and |
adjacent counties, and knowing that |
plant would be required to work up
the timber, Columbus proceeded to
go after the plant The company first
thought of locating the mill at Steen
ston, and was offered a parcel of
land suitable for site for $4,000.
Before the deal was closed, a party
of Columbians got hold of Mr.. Cur
tbs, the president, and Mr.. Smith, the
general manager of the concern, and
brought them here. They were shown
several prospective sites, and finally
said that if they could get the Neil
son property, where the plant is now
being built, for the same price at
which they were offered site at
Steenston, they would locate the
pidHl HSiS' opOA AhsCotiSdlAOh IL nc
veloped that the Nelson tract could
not be secured for less than $500,
so Mr.. G. F. Sherrod and Messrs.
Marx and Heard and other public
spirited citizens paid the difference,
and secured Columbus the plant.
Although work is being pushed for
ward as rapidly as possible, the un-
dertaking is of such great magnitude
that it will probably be the first of
October before the plant is completed.