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Origins of The New Orleans Great Northern Railroad

"The New Orleans Great Northern Railroad was developed by a group of wealthy Yankee lumbermen who began their operations in the Mississippi timber regions after 1900" (1). The railroad existed to support their lumbering and sawmill operations (see Wikipedia page: "The Great Southern Lumber Company") in Bogalusa, Louisiana. The Goodyear interests acquired the East Louisiana Railroad on June 1, 1905, from the Poitevant and Favre Lumber Company, which had been built to serve that company's sawmill and shipyard interests. (2)

The East Louisiana Railroad was chartered in 1882 and began construction in 1885 (3) on the line from its connection with the New Orleans and North Eastern RR at Florenville, LA to the town of Abita Springs, LA. The first excursion train ran on the new line on June 26, 1887. (4) [The right-of-way for this now-abandoned line is now occupied, for the most part, by Louisiana Highway 36.] The people of Covington, Louisiana passed a tax to contribute to construction of the railroad from Abita to Covington, a distance of 4 miles, and on May 16,1888, the first train ran to that town (5). The East Louisiana then constructed a branch to Mandeville, Louisiana that originated at the hamlet of St. Tammany and proceeded almost due south-west to Mandeville. The first excursion train to Mandeville was operated on May 22, 1892 (6). [The former right-of-way, now abandoned, defines the path of Highway 1088 from its junction with HIghway 36 to the intersection of Highway 59 just north of the city.]

The Greenlaw Lumber Company began building in 1902 (7) towards the village of Ramsay, north of Covington, as a means of transporting the timber harvested from the acreage held by the company. By June 1903, the Greenlaw Railroad had reached their mill, located on Holmesville Road, about 4 miles north of Covington (8). By December 1903, the line extended an additional 3 miles to the north, to the area known locally as "Red Bluff", or about 7 miles north of Covington (9). In 1904, the Greenlaw lines were acquired by the Louisiana Eastern, which held the rights of way from Red Bluff north to what is now the town of Folsom (10)(11).

The year 1904 was a pivotal year for railroad in the area. The East Louisiana was acquired by the Goodyear Family Interests and renamed the New Orleans Great Northern (12). The Goodyear brothers were developing the town of Bogalusa, about 20 miles to the north-east of Covington, as the site of a major sawmill at the hub of their timber interests in the area (13). It was in 1906 that the decision was made to construct the "Shore Line" - a new main line for the railroad, which would originate at the town of Slidell in the south-east corner of the parish, and traverse generally west through the village of Lacombe, to Mandeville (14). This segment of the branch generally parallels the shoreline of Lake Pontchartrain. From there, the branch turned due north and ran to Abita Springs, and there returned to the original East Louisiana roadbed to Covington and then north to Folsom, the northern terminus of the branch.

On December 23, 1908, the Louisiana Railroad Commission granted permission for the New Orleans Great Northern to abandon 11.6 miles from Mandeville to Mandeville Junction, and 9 miles from Mandeville Junction to the town of Abita Springs (16). The first train to operate on the new Shore Line Branch was run on January 17, 1909 (17).

The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad constructed a connection from Hammond, Louisiana to Covington, and the first trip along that line was made on February 26, 1908 (18). The line was christened the "Baton Rouge, Hammond and Eastern Railroad". This provided a direct connection to the state capitol at Baton Rouge via rail from Covington.

The records of the Louisiana Railroad Commission indicate that on July 22, 1919, the railroad was ordered to construct a new depot in Covington, to replace the existing station located at the corner of North New Hampshire Street and Gibson Street (19). The new station was duly designed and constructed, and was occupied by 1923. That station, a substantial brick structure extending approximately 260 feet along North New Hampshire Street from Lockwood Street to the intersection of Kirkland Street still stands today. [It was sold in 1983 by successor Illinois Central Gulf Railroad to local investors and has since been used for retail and commercial office space as well as a restaurant.]

On April 27, 1920, the Louisiana Railroad Commission granted permission for the removal of tracks from Florenville to St. Tammany, thus forever erasing all physical evidence of the first original main line of the East Louisiana Railroad, which had been built in 1885 (20).

The "NOGN" or the "Noggin" as many referred to it, prospered during the timber harvest that continued in the region into the early 1920's, propelled in part by the post WWI building boom in much of the nation (21). The line grew geographically to extend from New Orleans, Louisiana via trackage rights from Slidell, LA to New Orleans over the New Orleans North Eastern Railroad (22) to Jackson, Mississippi (23), following the gentle grades available along the Pearl River Valley of Mississippi. That route had been originally suggested by James J. Hill, one of the principal founders of the Great Northern Railroad (which extended from Chicago, Illinois to Seattle Washington), at a chance meeting with Frank Goodyear while at his winter home on Jekyll Island in about 1905 (24). As a result, the Goodyear family elected to honor Hill by incorporating the "Great Northern" name into their local railroad's moniker. Failure to begin reforestation of the harvested timber acreage until 1922, and the absence of significant industrial development to provide traffic for the line, led to a rapid decline beginning in 1926 in traffic over the road (25) that could not be supplemented from the meager agricultural production in the region.

By 1932 the line had defaulted on its bond debt and, through a receivership proceeding, lost its independence and came to be controlled Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad, a predecessor of the Gulf Mobile & Ohio Railroad (26).

(1) "The Gulf Mobile and Ohio" by James Hutton Lemly Page 274

(2) Ibid Page 275

(3) "St. Tammany Parish, L'autre Côte du Lac"  by Frederick Ellis  Pelican Publishing 1981 Page 166

(4) “To Abita Springs” June 27, 1887 Times Picayune Page 2

(5) "Rail to Covington" May 22, 1888 Times Picayune Page 4

(6) First Excursion Train to Mandeville, Times Picayune May 26, 1892, Page 2

(7) Ibid Ellis Page 167

(8) Ibid Ellis Page 167

(9) Ibid Ellis Page 167

(10) Deed Books: St. Tammany Parish Courthouse, Greenlaw Lumber Co. to East Louisiana RR, Dec. 22, 1904

(11) “Mr Haynes Statement”  Sunday September 18, 1904 Times Picayune Page 24

(12) Ibid Lemle Page 276

(13) http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mcclendon/Bogalusa/Bogalusa%20Story/BogalusaStory-with-photos.html

(14) Ibid Lemle Page 276

(15 Ibid Ellis Page 169

(16) Louisiana Railroad Commission Order 961

(17) “First Train over New Covington Line”   Thursday February 27, 1908,  New  Orleans Item Page 7

(18) “First Train Comes In” Daily State (Baton Rouge) Wednesday February 26, 1908, Page 1

(19) Louisiana Railroad Commission Order 2294

(20) Louisiana Railroad Commission Orders 2954 and 2966

(21) Ibid Lemle Page 279

(22) Ibid Lemle Page 277

(23) Ibid

(24) Letter of C. W. Goodyear to J. D. Lacey dated March 8, 1905 (the complete text can be viewed in Chapter IV of the site referenced in footnote 13)

(25) Ibid Lemle Page 280

(26) Ibid Lemle Page 282