Gragg Lumber Company

Gragg Lumber Company. . , In 1926, brothers John, Earl, Wayne and Gilbert Gragg came from North Carolina to establish a sawmill six tenths of a mile north of here on the east side of Amsterdam Road. As the Gragg Lumber Co., they leased cutting rights on 16,000 acres owned by American Sumatra Tobacco Company. They harvested timber with portable sawmills and hauled lumber to their dry kiln and plane mill for five years. They built their “dream mill”, incorporating modern band saws, in 1930. Their company became one of the largest hardwood lumber producers in the state of Georgia, employing about 200 people at peak production. The timber depleted, the mill closed in 1944. , (Continued on other side), (Continued from other side) , From Virginia in the north, stretching south to Texas and bounded by the Piedmont and by mountains to the west, there was once a carpet of Green Gold. This fabulous carpet was long-leaf and slash pine, including oaks here. It attracted sawmill and turpentine industries to Decatur County. These industries yielded economic stability in this region during the first half of the twentieth century. The longleaf pine once covered 130 million acres. Its area is now reduced to about 3 million acres. The cathedral like beauty of longleaf stands and wide use of the tree gave it the crown of “one of the greatest trees ever known.”