page_title: Missouri Lumber and Mining Company
section_title: Prosperity
hierarchical_section_title: Missouri Lumber and Mining Company / Prosperity
caption_attribution_description: English: Log train of Misouri Mining and Lumber Co in Shannon County, Missouri circa 1910
context_page_description: The Missouri Lumber and Mining Company was a large timber corporation with headquarters and primary operations in southeast Missouri. The company was formed by Pennsylvania lumbermen who were eager to exploit the untapped timber resources of the Missouri Ozarks to supply lumber, primarily used in construction, to meet the demand of U.S. westward expansion. Its primary operations were centered in Grandin, a company town it built starting c. 1888. The lumber mill there grew to be the largest in the country at the turn of the century and Grandin's population peaked around 2,500 to 3,000. As the timber resources were exhaused, the company had to abandon Grandin around 1910. It continued timber harvesting in other parts of Missouri for another decade. While some of the buildings in Grandin were relocated, many of the remaining buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 as part of the state's historic preservation plan which considered the MLM a significant technological and economic contributor to Missouri.
context_section_description: There were six million board feet of lumber in the Grandin yard waiting to be shipped when the railroad arrived in June 1888. Production reached 32 million board feet in 1892 and averaged 60 million annually after 1895. More mills, both saw and planing, were added in 1892 and in 1894 it was asserted, by at least one local newspaper, to be the largest mill (by production) in the country.
  MLM used an extensive network of tram railways, built with standard gauge track, 300 log cars and 6 locomotives to move logs to the mill. Using standard gauge allowed the log cars to be transported the final leg to the mill over the Current Railroad tracks. It also floated logs on rivers and streams, primarily the Current River. Above Chicopee, where the Current River Railroad crossed the river, mules dragged logs to the bank where they were floated downstream in flotillas up to 15 miles (24 km) long. At Chicopee, the logs were dragged out of the river and loaded onto railcars.
  Only trees measuring 11 inches in diameter or greater were felled. The largest were nearly four feet. All logs were left to soak in Toliver Pond for several days before sawing to remove dirt that would dull saw blades. Logs were brought from the pond to the saws by conveyor. The mills included circular, band, and head saws driven by steam power. In additional to dimensional lumber, the mills produced shingles and lath.
  The company marketed its pine as "Beaver Dam Soft Pine", after Beaver Dam Creek, and used a beaver as its trademark. The name became well known throughout the U.S. lumber market. MLM lumber was sold from Ohio westward into the plains states, with most being sold west of the Mississippi; half of its 1901 production went to Kansas City lumber dealers.
  In 1890, White became president of the Southern Lumber Manufactures' Association, which worked to negotiate better rates with the railroads, standardize lumber grading and prices. A year later, White moved his office from the company headquarters in Grandin to Kansas City where other big lumber companies were located. White consolidated the region's lumber industry in 1897 as leader of the Missouri Land and Lumber Exchange, a cartel which set production and prices. The company was so powerful that it was able to raise lumber prices ten times in 1899 and control lumber prices nation-wide.
  The company grew and had approximately 1000 employees in Grandin in 1900, and peaked at 1500 five years later. One out of every six Carter County residents worked for the company. The company recruited skilled workers from other regions of the country that also had large timber operations and used mostly locals for unskilled work.
  Smaller operations were located in Hunter (named after founder Jahu Hunter) and Fremont, both located on the Current River Railroad.
caption: MLM log train, c. 1910
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