I had never heard of this little community until I came across this article last week in the News Star of May 2, 1983. It was a first place essay in the Ouachita Parish Extension Homemakers’ article writing contest. It was written by Dorothy A. Jones of the Claiborne Homemakers Club.
Little Remains of now-extinct sawmill town
Several years ago, we bought a little West Ouachita Parish history. In the late 1800s, the thriving sawmill community of Powell was located there – about 2 1/2 miles west of Cheniere Station on the Illinois Central Railroad going toward Calhoun.
My neighbor, Breard Britton, remembers that the sawmill was in operation in 1912. Each virgin timber log was pulled to mill by six oxen. The men who drove the oxen passed Britton’s home on the way to the mill. he was only six, and they would let him ride for a short way on top of the logs.
Another neighbor, Annie Britton, also remembers Powell. She said that the men would always stop at their house to water the oxen and let them rest. Miss Annie’s father was the man who marked the trees to be cut and also followed the men into the woods to keep the saws sharp.
Few evidences of Powell are left after all these years. There is an old roadbed, the siding where the passenger train stopped, a very deep water well, and two large concrete structures that supported the power equipment used in operating the mill.
The old roadbed goes down to the Cheniere Creek. Here there was a bridge that crossed the creek and the railroad. One of the big houses and commissary were located across the creek.
Trais, when available, were the chief mode of travel in those days. Powell was a twice-a-day passenger train stop. Across the creek are, also, the remains of the rectangular siding where the train stopped. Miss Annie very clearly recalled, “The morning train, No. 9, and the evening train, No. 10, stopped every day.”
Britton reminiscences, “The whole community would gather at the siding to meet the trains on Sunday.” Each spring white iris and jonquil and tame plums bloom in our pasture where another of the big houses was located. Here, there is also the remains of a huge water well.
Almost all evidence of where the small houses where the sawmill workers lived is gone. There are two large shallow holes that were once water wells. An occasional brick is turned up when plowing in the area where those houses stood. Britton remembers that there were at least 20 houses in two locations. Miss ANnie tells of a large clearing between those two groups of houses. This was where the young people played ball.
One of the things that Britton remembers that has disappeared with time was a railroad switch siding located next to the mill’s planer where flatcars were loaded with finished lumber.
No one seems to remember exactly when the mill was shut down. “I know that it was dismantled in 1918. By then my uncle had bought the property.” Britton recalled. “But the train still stopped at Powell to let people off and pick up passengers until the middle 1920s.”
I am glad we own a little of West Ouachita history. As I sit here in the late afternoon when the silence is broken only by occasionally barking dogs and the songs of many birds, I try to visualize what it must have been like when this was Powell, La.
I did find an article in the Oct. 14, 1909 News-Star stating that, “The Powell Lumber Company has just erected a large planing mill in connection with their sawmill plant, which has been in operation only a short time. The output from this mill is expected to be quite large.” This must have been when it opened. I have shared a photo of the Powell Lumber Company in the past, which you can find linked below.
Ouachita Parish History Tidbits 