| Alpha-Numeric Key: | JA-90 |
| Corporate Name: | Texas Tram and Lumber Company |
| Local Name: | |
| Owner Name: | Texas Tram and Lumber Company. Yellow Bluff Tram. Long Manufacturing Company and Beaumont Lumber Company, leased in late 1877 for a number of years. |
| Location: | From Yellow Bluff, ten miles north of Evadale (Ford's Bluff), five miles east to Cairo Springs |
| County: | Jasper |
| Years in Operation: | 20 years |
| Start Year: | 1877 |
| End Year: | 1896 |
| Decades: | 1870-1879,1880-1889,1890-1899 |
| Period of Operation: | 1877 to at least 1896 |
| Town: | Yellow Bluff, ten miles north of Evadale (Ford's Bluff), five miles east to Cairo Springs |
| Company Town: | 1 |
| Peak Town Size: | Unknown |
| Mill Pond: |  |
| Type of Mill: | Logging tram company, which also operated a crosstie sawmill at Cairo Springs in Jasper County. Sawtimber and sawlogs.
 Sawmill |
Pine Sawmill |
Hardwood Sawmill |
Cypress Sawmill |
| Planer |
Planer Only |
Shingle |
Paper |
| Plywood |
Cotton |
Grist |
Unknown |
| Other |
|
|
|
|
| Power Source: | Mules, oxen, steam machinery, steam logging tram road
| Horse |
Mule |
Oxen |
Water |
| Water Overshot |
Water Turbine |
Diesel |
Unknown |
| Pit |
Steam |
Steam Circular |
Steam Band |
| Gas |
Electricity |
Other |
|
|
| Maximum Capacity: | |
| Capacity Comments: | Unknown |
| Produced: |
| Rough Lumber |
Planed Lumber |
Crossties |
Timbers |
| Lathe |
Ceiling |
Unknown |
Beading |
| Flooring |
Paper |
Plywood |
Particle Board |
| Treated |
Other |
| |
|
| Equipment: | Small crosstie sawmill producing timbers and ties for the steam logging tram road |
| Company Tram: | |
| Associated Railroads: | Yellow Bluff Tram Company, the steam logging tram company that became known as the Texas Tram and Lumber Company. |
| Historicial Development: | The Yellow Bluff Tram Company begins with the need of Long Manufacturing and Beaumont Lumber Company need for a secure supply of logs. Colonel B. D. Crary and B. F. Van Meter, the former a stumpage owner in Jasper County and the latter an independent logging contractor, wanted to supply Long's and Beaumont's needs. Crary and Van Meter created the Yellow Bluff Tram Company to harvests the pine timber of Jasper County and shortly thereafter leased Yellow Bluff Tram to Long Manufacturing and Beaumont Lumber. Long and Beaumont gained total control of Yellow Bluff Tram and changed its name to Texas Tram and Lumber Company.
The tram route stretched across its cypress tracks from Yellow Bluff, ten miles north of Evadale, to Cairo Springs, five miles to the east, where a logging camp and small sawmill was built. Mules dragged the logging cars to the river. The logs were spilled down a rollway and floated to Beaumont. B. F. Van Meter, then Joseph A. Carroll, were the first two Yellow Bluff superintendents. Soon iron rails and the first locomotive, the Colonel No. 2, in Jasper County upgraded the physical inventory.
The Tram guaranteed Long Manufacturing and Beaumont Lumber sufficient numbers of logs at all times, provided the Neches River was high enough. About sixty men would put between 150 and 200 logs into the River daily. In November 1878 alone, 18,000 logs were floated south. The tram road soon reached Buna, and another spur stretched to Ford's Bluff (Evadale) on the river, shortening by ten miles a log's trip to the river.
|
| Research Date: | MCJ 01-08-96 |
| Prepared By: | M Johnson |