Four C Mill

Central Coal and Coke Company of Kansas City began buying virgin pine land in 1899. The Handbook of Texas says the company bought J. H. Ratcliff's sawmill in 1901 and made it the foundation of the Four C Mill, which was said at the time to be the largest sawmill west of the Mississippi. Lumbering stripped more than 120,000 acres of the surrounding forest by 1917. The mill was shut down and dismantled in 1920, and a holding company later sold the property to the federal government, whose Civilian Conservation Corps replanted much of the area.

What the plaque says

Four C Mill R.M. Keith, agent for Central Coal & Coke Co., Kansas City, Mo., in Oct. 1899., began purchasing the virgin pine timberlands of this region. Lumber for construction of a new mill was cut by a small sawmill bought by Keith, Jan. 10, 1901, from local landowner, J.H. Ratcliff. Although known as"Four C" mill, it was operated by the Louisiana and Texas Lumber Co., organized by Keith in July 1901. The mill began sawing lumber in June 1902, producing 300,000 board feet per 11-hour day. The Texas Southeastern Railroad laid tracks from Lufkin; tram roads and tap lines were built into the forest to haul fresh-cut timber to the mill. The company built houses and a "company store" at the mill, and several logging camps in the forest to house and feed lumberjacks. Hostility erupted when Town of Ratcliff was begun nearby, competing for the workers' trade. Between the mill and Ratcliff the company erected a 16-foot fence, which was dynamited several times, thwarting the attempts to establish a company-controlled town. By 1917, the company had exhausted the 120,000 acres it had purchased. The mill was shut down and dismantled in 1920, due to shortage of good timber. Nearby Ratcliff Lake was the Four C millpond. (1973)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 14 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.
• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 35 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.

More markers nearby

• Ratcliff — 0.6 mi
• Allen Chapel Community — 0.6 mi
• Ratcliff CCC Camp — 0.6 mi
• Pioneer Settlers of Coltharp — 1.4 mi