Visitor Guide 4x9 2017 final 1-11

Ponchatoula has a “town” within a town?
In 1922, the country’s demand for virgin cypress brought in Louisiana
Cypress Lumber Company, so large, that the area became
“Millville” – now the location of Industrial Park and many acres
nearby.
Employing so many people, the company built numerous cypress
houses for some of them: small and medium cottages for regular
workers, larger homes for superintendents. Naturally bug-proof,
the houses stand today as beautiful monuments to those times and
“gold mines” to their residents who’ve bought and updated them.
Our town locomotive was only one of L.C.’s engines to cross
U.S. 51 before daylight to the Illinois Central Railroad tracks and
onto spurs throughout the swamps, returning after dark with cars
filled with timber for milling.
Plant steam whistles served as clocks for miles around, blasting
at seven, noon, and knock-off time.
Workers were paid in “brozenes” (tokens) used in the commissary
which stocked groceries, clothes and everyday items. The
mill provided a drugstore as well as its own doctor.
While there is no “Millville” sign as such, you’ll know you’ve
started your four-mile-plus circling tour by seeing names like
Millside Restaurant, Millville Baptist Church and Mill Gardens
subdivision or the original “roundhouse” Louisiana Cypress
retail store by the Electric Train Depot on 51 South.
Written by: Kathryn J. Martin
tangitourism.com
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