Bogalusa enterprise and American. (Bogalusa, La.) 1918-19??, 1921-01-20
Bv CoURTENAY DE KALB

Bogalusa is a booming town. 1t IS
not fair to call it ''boom town." for
one is never certain about the fu-
ture of a boom town; it may prove
like the lustiness of youth that passes:
Bogalusa is young and lustry and
growing, not merly with faith in the
years to come, but with certainty Of
increasing prosperity. That is mat
ter of business calculation, based on
the length of time it takes a pine
tree to grow.
Bogalusa is only IA years old. The
people like to remind the visitor that
only IA years ago there was nothing
here but the potential wealth of a
pine forest. They tell with pride that
as recently as 1906 Col. w. H. Sulli-
van, with visions of brand new city
in his head, pitched his tent on a
sandy flat among the yellow pines
beside the sluggish stream called
Bogue Lusa, where is now the beau
tiful Goodyear Park, surrounded by
handsome buildings, a Y. M. G. A,
Y. W. C. A., beautiful stores and a
splendid office building for the
Great Southern Lumber COmpany's
group of allied industries.
The people of Bogalusa never
write a sentence that does not begin
with "Bogalusa,' which might indi-
cate conceit, but they have some
thing to be vain over. They are in
veterate boosters, yet the rarest per-
son to be found in this swiftly grow
ing city of 10000 is real estate
agent, in which respect the Bogalusa
booster sharply contrasts with his
cousin in Los Angeles, Cal. 1t is
iocuIarly said that all Southern Cali
fornia is for sale, but all Bogalusa
is not for sale. Apparently no one
so fortunate as to have established
! himself in Bogalusa can be bought
off; he has come to stay. 1t is pos
sible, nevertheless, to buy lots in Be-
galusa and land in Washington par
| ish surrounding it, because this was
| all virgin wilderness IA years ago,
and 10000 people cannot fill up so
much open land. When the first set
| tiers came they counted on making
money out of logging camp, which
was supposed to have life of some
40 years. After a time, however,
new ideas were conceived and new
policy was adopted. The sawmill
was to be supplemented by pulp
mill to consume the waste, instead OF
burning it up, and the lands were to
be reforested to sustain the pulp
mill as a permanent enterprise. This
meant an altogether different kind
of an opportunity from that of feed
ing off temporary numbering com
munity, and the town leaped forward
in population.
The city has two banks, with to-
tai combined deposits of 81 100000;
1875 mercantile houses, purchasing
over S2,20O,00O worth of goods year
! "; there is a Acton ice plant, with
a cold storage capacity of 500 tons;
there is a creamery and a big mod
ern stock farm developed by the
Bogue -Chitto Stock Fran Company,
which has acquired 1000 acres of
cut-over land from the Great South
ern Lumber Company. The Colonial
| Creosoting Plant has works for treat
| ing 100000 feet of timbers per diem
employing IS worlmen, and the paw
4 ing brick plant has q capacity OF
5000 yards daily, sufficient to pave
a half mile of street. The main
shops of the New Orleans Great
Northern Railroad are situated al
Bogalusa, affording employment fol
Il 800 men. There is a Bogalusa We
| Heer Company having a daily capac
ity Of $4,000 feet. Baer & Thayel
have a new hardwood mill at BOga
lusa with a capacity of 10000 feet
managed by George Field. There
is one high-class hotel, the Pine Tree
Inn, with bathing pond, modern gOl
links, and all the attractions fol-
tourists who know the virtue of tht
/ piney woods in the sand belt north
; of Lake Pontchartrain, in Louisiana
} one Of the most phenOmenally healthy