Peabody was a post office in Clay County, Kentucky, United States that served coal mining and lumber company lands bought by Francis Peabody of Peabody Energy and eventually ended up as part of a national forest.[2] It closed in 1982.[2] The Red Bird Purchase Unit Ranger Station is located at Peabody.[3]
The land was originally bought from local landowners by a combine of businessmen from Manchester, who sold it to Peabody some time around 1907.[2] The post office was first established as Annalee at the mouth of Big Double Creek on the Red Bird River on 1909-06-11, by postmaster and storekeeper Floyd M. Chadwell.[2] He took the name from the daughter of his new neighbour, who was civil engineer Thomas A. Bird brought in to manage the land holdings for Peabody.[2] With new postmaster Jewell L. Galloway on 1930-07-01 it changed name to the Redbird River, gaining its final name of Peabody on 1933-03-01, at which point the land was not owned by Peabody any more.[2]
The land had in the meantime been bought by Fordson Coal Company, with Thomas A. Bird still managing it, and had a large Civilian Conservation Corps camp.[2] It was sold on to Potomac Industries in the 1960s, in turn sold to the Red Bird Timber Company in 1965, and finally sold on 1967-01-01 to the Red Bird Purchase Unit of the United States Government to go on to form part of the Daniel Boone National Forest.[2][4]
Fordson's purchase of the land in the first quarter of 1923 was in order to secure coal supplies, after a September 1922 incident where the Interstate Commerce Commission had restricted supply of coal to the Ford company because it was not "essential" use.[5] It was part of a bulk purchase of various Peabody holdings throughout Leslie, Clay, Perry, Bell, and Letcher counties, the so-called 12,000 acres (4,900ha) Peabody Tract, the total price of which was US$2,783,000 and which was estimated to be capable of supplying 20,000,000 short tons (18Tg) of coal and 500,000,000 feet (150Mm) of lumber.[6]
Because of conditions imposed by Fordson on its tenants to preserve its coal and lumber interests, the Peabody Tract area in general was without paved roads or telephones until its sale in the 1960s.[4] In exchange for peppercorn rents of US$10, US$5, or even nothing at all per annum, tenants were required to provide what was termed "Care of Property", putting out forest fires and preventing other people from cutting timber.[7] They were also themselves prohibited from cutting trees, or without prior Fordson permission hauling trees (over the tract) that had been cut elsewhere, cutting even small timber for domestic purposes, or building housing structures for livestock (e.g. barns, pens, and chicken coops).[4] The company did not position itself as a landlord, did not perform housing repair, and did not permit (as one letter from company manager Christopher Queen to a tenant confirmed) the construction of "any more houses on our land".[3]
Rennick, Robert M. (2000c). "Clay County — Post Offices". County Histories of Kentucky. Morehead State University (176).
Bryan, Ford Richardson (1997). Beyond the Model T: The Other Ventures of Henry Ford. Wayne State University Press. ISBN9780814326824.
Weise, Robert S. (2018). "Remaking Red Bird". In Stock, Catherine McNicol; Johnston, Robert D. (eds.). The Countryside in the Age of the Modern State: Political Histories of Rural America. Cornell University Press. ISBN9781501717734.
The Daniel Boone National Forest is a national forest in Kentucky. Established in 1937, it includes 708,000 acres (287,000 ha) of federally owned land within a 2,100,000-acre (850,000 ha) proclamation boundary. The name of the forest was changed in 1966 in honor of the explorer Daniel Boone.
Plum Creek Timber Company, Inc. was a timberland owner and manager, as well as a forest products, mineral extraction, and property development company, until it merged with Weyerhaeuser Company. It was headquartered in Suite 3100 at 601 Union Street in Seattle.
Fordson was a brand name of tractors and trucks. It was used on a range of mass-produced general-purpose tractors manufactured by Henry Ford & Son Inc from 1917 to 1920, by Ford Motor Company (U.S.) and Ford Motor Company Ltd (U.K.) from 1920 to 1928, and by Ford Motor Company Ltd (U.K.) from 1929 to 1964. The latter also later built trucks and vans under the Fordson brand.
Robert Alexander Long was an American lumber baron, developer, investor, newspaper owner, and philanthropist. He lived most of his life in Kansas City, Missouri and founded Longview, Washington and Longville, Louisiana.
The Babcock Lumber Company was founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1887 and conducted logging operations in the eastern United States. In 1951 the company diversified into building material distribution. Today the company has two main divisions: hardwood lumber manufacturing and wholesale building material distribution.
Logging in the Sierra Nevada arose from the desire for economic growth throughout California. The California Gold Rush created a high demand for timber in housing construction, mining procedures, and building railroads. In the early days, harvesting of forests were unregulated and within the first 20 years after the gold rush, a third of the timber in the Sierra Nevada was logged. Concern for the forests rose and created a movement towards conservation at the turn of the 19th century, leading to the creation of state and national parks and forest reserves, bringing forest land under regulation. Between 1900 and 1940, agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service regulated the use of the Sierra Nevada's resources. The economy boom after World War II dramatically increased timber production in the Sierras using clear-cutting as the dominant form of logging. In addition, the California Forest Practice Act, or the Z'Berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act was enacted in 1973 to regulate private timberland holdings.
The Red Bird River is one of two tributaries at the head of the South Fork of the Kentucky River, the other being the Goose Creek. It is located in the Daniel Boone National Forest in extreme southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is 34.3 miles (55.2 km) long and drains an area of 195.7 square miles (507 km2).
Swiss is an unincorporated community in western Nicholas County, West Virginia, United States. Its elevation is 735 ft (224 m).
The Forest of Birse is a remote upland area in the upper catchment of the Water of Feugh, which forms the south-western portion of the Parish of Birse, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It also forms the western part of the community of Finzean, but has a separate, complex history of landownership relating to its status as a commonty, which has involved a large number of disputes since the 16th century. In more recent decades, the forest has been a popular destination for people from Aberdeen taking picnics, as it is the closest area of Highland scenery to the city.
Bayou Cocodrie National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1992 to preserve waterfowl habitat and hardwood forest of the lower Mississippi river. The 13,200-acre (53 km2) refuge is located in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Vidalia, Louisiana. It is named for the state-designated scenic river of Bayou Cocodrie.
Quehanna Wild Area is a wildlife area within parts of Cameron, Clearfield and Elk counties in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania; with a total area of 48,186 acres, it covers parts of Elk and Moshannon State Forests. Founded in the 1950s as a nuclear research center, Quehanna has a legacy of radioactive and toxic waste contamination, while also being the largest state forest wild area in Pennsylvania, with herds of elk. The wild area is bisected by the Quehanna Highway and is home to second growth forest with mixed hardwoods and evergreens. Quehanna has two state forest natural areas: the 1,215-acre (492 ha) Wykoff Run Natural Area, and the 917-acre (371 ha) Marion Brooks Natural Area. The latter has the largest stand of white birch in Pennsylvania and the eastern United States.
The St. Lawrence Boom and Manufacturing Company was a lumber company based in Ronceverte, West Virginia. It was founded in 1802 by a Colonel Cecil C. Clay, a former US Army Brigadier-General from Philadelphia.
Hines Supply, based in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, in the United States, is a business firm specializing in lumber, plywood, decking, doors, windows, trim, and other wood products. It also sells related services such as consultations and cost estimates for building projects. It has outlets in Alsip, Grayslake, Hampshire, Kirkland, Montgomery, St. Charles, Bloomington, West Chicago, Wheaton, Buffalo Grove and Twin Lakes, Wisconsin.
Horse Creek is a tributary of Goose Creek river in Clay County in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The Cumberland and Manchester Railway built a spur line up the creek, and it has been the site of operations of at least eight coal mining companies. The name comes, according to local tradition, from the proliferation of "horseweed" in the creek valley.
The history of the lumber industry in the united states spans from the precolonial period of British timber speculation, subsequent British colonization, and American development into the twenty-first century. Following the near eradication of domestic timber on the British Isles, the abundance of old-growth forests in the New World posed an attractive alternative to importing choice timber from the Baltic via the narrow straits and channels between Denmark and Sweden. The easily available timber proved an incredible resource to early settlers, with both domestic consumption and overseas trade fueling demand. The industry expanded rapidly as Americans logged their way across the country. In this pursuit, millions of indigenous peoples were murdered, displaced, and enslaved for the purpose of the timber industry.
L.N. Dantzler Lumber Company began as a small sawmill owned by William Griffin in Moss Point, Mississippi. L.N. Danzler bought it in the 1870s and, with two sons, incorporated the business in 1888. Originally, the main business was the manufacture of lumber from southern yellow pine, but in 1949, the company switched to tree farming of southern pines and sold timber by selective cutting to yield a variety of wood products. The family-owned business prospered for 75 years but was sold to International Paper Company in 1966.
The Hume-Bennett Lumber Company was a logging operation in the Sequoia National Forest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The company and its predecessors were known for building the world's longest log flume and the first multiple-arch hydroelectric dam. However, the company also engaged in destructive clearcutting logging practices, cutting down 8,000 giant sequoias in Converse Basin in a decade-long event that has been described as "the greatest orgy of destructive lumbering in the history of the world."
Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Company was a lumber products company with large sawmills and significant land holdings in Minnesota, Florida, British Columbia, and Central Oregon. The company was formed in 1901 with its headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Beginning in 1915, its main lumber production facility was in Bend, Oregon. For many years, its Bend sawmill was one of the largest lumber producers in the world. In 1969, the company created Brooks Resources to broaden its business base beyond timber production. Brooks-Scanlon's Bend sawmill was closed in 1994. Today, Brooks Resources is the only vestige of the company that is still in business.
Mountain Home Demonstration State Forest (MHDSF) is a state forest located on Bear Creek Road (Tulare County Route 220), 28 km (17 mi) northeast of Springville in Tulare County, California. The protected land covers an area of 4,807 acres (19 km2) with an elevation range between 1,463 m (4,800 ft) and 2,377.5 m (7,800 ft). The forest is best known for its namesake giant sequoia grove, Mountain Home Grove, which is home to some of the largest giant sequoias in the world.
The Yosemite Lumber Company was an early 20th century Sugar Pine and White Pine logging operation in the Sierra Nevada. The company built the steepest logging incline ever, a 3,100 feet (940 m) route that tied the high-country timber tracts in Yosemite National Park to the low-lying Yosemite Valley Railroad running alongside the Merced River. From there, the logs went by rail to the company’s sawmill at Merced Falls, about fifty-four miles west of El Portal.
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