Lumber baron J. Frank Keith built a huge sawmill along the southern shore of Pine Island Bayou in 1903. The company town that grew up around the worksite became known as Voth. The Kirby Lumber Company acquired the property in 1922 and expanded the operation, adding hardwood machinery from the Gulf Lumber Company in Fullerton, Louisiana. At its peak, the mill consisted of two large sawmills, a band re-saw, a planer, several dry kilns, and a tram railroad, plus ancillary buildings including a company commissary and a post office. Production frequently exceeded 80,000 board-feet per day.
Logs were dumped into Pine Island Bayou and used when needed. The mill burned before 1920 but was rebuilt. In 1922 Kirby Lumber acquired the plant, added a hardwood mill in 1924, which was still cutting pine in 1948. In 1952, when the Kirby Corporation consolidated at Silsbee, Voth became the last sawmill in Jefferson County to close its doors. When land was purchased for the Pine Island Bayou Corridor of the Preserve, the extensive brick and concrete ruins, several foundation and wall remnants had totally collapsed, victims of periodic flooding. Of five structures, only the large box-like standing concrete structure nearest the highway remained a prime candidate for the National Register of Historic Places as the largest sawmill in the Preserve.
The City of Beaumont soon annexed Voth, expanding the city limits to their present day northern boundary at Pine Island Bayou.
Some insist that more than the buildings remain. Many have reported strange lights and mysterious noises emanating from the ruins. Ghosts, goblins, or wild imagination? We'll let you make the call.
You can read a story about the mill written in times contemporary to the operation of the mill for a tourist book at this link:
(
visit link)