In the spring of last year I posted several photographs taken by the late Ron Findley during our trips to the Southern Forest Heritage Museum up in Long Leaf, Louisiana. Our first trip occurred in March of 1988 when we discovered the former sawmill property. And the first thing we encountered was a “boneyard” filled with steam locomotive debris. It was obviously where locomotives, and perhaps other equipment, were being cut up for scrap. For some reason the scrappers stopped before dismantling a steam locomotive and a Clyde double-ended rehaul skidder. And they had left considerable debris from the process, which was a surprise. Why did they stop and not complete the job, and haul off all of that metal?

I lost the slides I had made during that initial trip as a result of the Great Flood of 2016. Fortunately Ron still had his, and I’ve posted some photographs that Ron had recorded of the #400 steam locomotive and of the Clyde skidder at different times. In April of 2011 Ron and I had gone back to the sawmill (now the SFHM) to see the entire property. But I had forgotten that I had then taken digital images, thinking I was still using the film camera. I recently found the file containing those images. The photograph below is one that I took of both machines together. One can see a few scraps from other locomotives, and these are at the very edge of the boneyard. There is quite a bit more behind me.