EAST CENTRAL MISSISSIPPI 255 EAST CENTRAL MISSISSIPPI 255 PHOTO COURTESY OF MISSISSIPPI RAILS, JOHN MORGAN COLLECTION LUMBER The late 1800s and early 1900s saw the arrival of logging railways in Mississippi. Before railroads connected logging camps to sawmills, the mills were restricted to being on rivers where barges of wood could be floated to them. Railroads such as those operated by the Mississippi Lumber Company provided valuable transportation and revenue. Mississippi’s vast forests make lumber one of its primary natural resources. The sawmill in Quitman was built around 1900 and harvested 75,000 feet of board every day. From 1905 to 1915, Mississippi was one of three states which produced most of the nation’s lumber. Crandall was one of the hubs of the logging industry in the Magnolia State. Once the site of a hardwood mill, only parts of the foundation of the mill are visible today. PHOTO COURTESY OF MISSISSIPPI RAILS, GIL HOFFMAN COLLECTION PHOTO COURTESY OF MISSISSIPPI RAILS, JOHN SHARP COLLECTION