|
|
|
Book Review
| Timber: A Photographic History of Mississippi Forestry. By James E. Fickle. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi for Mississippi Forestry Foundation, Inc., 2004. Cloth $35.00.
|
| In 2001 James E. Fickle published Mississippi Forests and Forestry (University Press of Mississippi for Mississippi Forestry Foundation), a detailed examination of the state's woodlands from prehistory until current times. This companion volume includes an impressive assortment of photographs not included in the 2001 publication. Gleaned from numerous sources—archives, museums, public libraries, university collections, individual and company collections, lumber industry periodicals, the Forest History Society, the Mississippi Forestry Commission, as well as the United States Forest Service, among others—Photographic History unfolds the saga of how Mississippi's vast pine and hardwood forests have been utilized. |
1
|
|
Fickle begins his photographic account with scenes of majestic ancient longleaf pine, hardwood, and cypress stands, allowing the viewer to envision why early European explorers and settlers were awestruck by similar sights. Although some antebellum lumbering enterprises are referenced, commercial harvesting of Mississippi's forests did not begin in earnest until after the Civil War. Railroad expansion into the interior of the state was the key that enabled large-scale operations to extract the valuable timber as depicted in numerous shots of logging railroads and timber cutters. One gets a strong sense of the back-breaking and dangerous nature of work in the forest industries after viewing the photographs of loggers, logging gear, and draft animals in the woods as well as mill workers posed with a range of milling equipment. Prominent Mississippi lumbermen and foresters are likewise featured throughout the book. |
2
|
|
Fickle has combed the corporate files of several Mississippi lumber firms to procure photographs of sawmills, planing mills, and kilns. In fact, a number of the interior mill shots are some of the best in the published literature. Several pages are devoted to company towns with their homes, commissaries, school houses, hospitals, ball fields, and hotels. One unusual set depicts the rustic portable housing that was moved from one logging site to another, allowing the observer to imagine the inconveniences associated with camp life. |
3
|
|
Scenes of schooners lined up to load their timber cargos at Gulfport, Mississippi, remind the reader that through the intercoastal and foreign timber trade this commodity was transported all over the world. Sections are devoted to the turpentine, plywood, and pulpwood industries as well as Mississippi's Masonite Corporation. The nascent conservation movement in the state is documented with a brief history of the Mississippi Forestry Commission. Federal reforestation efforts conducted by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s also are acknowledged. |
4
|
|
Timber: A Photographic History of Mississippi Forestry is a genuine treat for scholars as well as those with a casual interest in the southern lumber industry. One minor criticism is that more space could have been devoted to the contemporary environmental movement. |
5
|
|
Mary Ellen Wilson is a professor of history and vice president for academic affairs at Middle Georgia College. She has published several articles on the Georgia longleaf pine lumber industry. |
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|