> Oops! Guess they have made a start at least.
> See James Hefner's site below:
Bob,
They have made *tremendous* progress in stablizing and clearing the site since my first visit. Most of the vegetation has been cleared away, and the trackwork around the mill has been restored for speeder rides.
The cabbage stack 2-6-0 has been been moved under cover in the machine shop, while both loaders have new roofs. The planing mill was in the worst shape, and it now has a new floor and I believe a new roof.
The former commissary is now a visitor's center, with exihibits and a small theater. The soda bar in the bar now serves drinks and snacks to visitors.
The sawmill has been stablized, and you can now tour it. The massize drying shed now has several items of logging equipment on display.
There have been some setbacks. The big air pipe that was used to blow sawdust from the planner mill to the boiler house is mostly down now. One of the smokestacks has fallen since my first visit, and one of the outbuildings was accidently burned to the ground during the process of clearing the land.
There was talk of bringing one of the Reader Railroad locomotives to Long Leaf instead of restoring one of the locomotives on the grounds. But nothing has come of it yet; I'm sure in part because there is not much room to run one right now.
In summary, they are doing a great job of stablizing and restoring the mill site. There are all sorts of activities at the site throughout the year; and Long Leaf was featured on the "Lost Places" series on Louisiana Public Broadcasting. (As was McNeill Pumping Station in Shreveport.)
They send out a newsletter to all museum members, so if you would like to learn more about the goings on at Long Leaf, I suggest becoming a member. If you would like to see more photographs of the equipment at Long Leaf; I have a picture of a portable hoisting engine at Long Leaf on my "Surviving World Steam Vehicle" CD-ROM. I also made yet a another pilgrimage last year and photographed all but one of the seven steam lizards on the mill grounds. You can see them by joining my "Steam Lizards" group on Yahoo, then going to the Photo Section and looking in the "Surviving Steam Pumps > North America > Long Leaf" folder. Many of them, including the mill's pair of steam fire pumps, are impressively large; but are usually off limits to visitors.
I have been yearning to make another trip this year; but the weather and my busy schedule have kept me away so far. It is truely the "East Broad Top" of the Gulf Coast, and I strongly recommend a visit if you are in the area.
-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a
"Steam Lizards" - reciprocating steam pumps
james1@pernet.net