Top Photo Left:
Workmen take a rest along the Paragould Southeastern
railroad right of way in 1897. The PSE was constructed
to link Paragould with the rich timberlands of the St. Francis bottoms and sawmills, such as the one in the background, sprang up in the woods to process the tim- ber for rail shipment.
Photo courtesy: The Big Picture files
Eastern Greene County was a booming timber territory
in the years just before and just after the turn of the century. At left (below), oxen and mules are used to haul the heavy logs at a site near Bard. Henry Biggs, second from right, was one of the workmen in this oper-ation, which lasted seven years.This photograph is said to have been taken in the late 1880s or early 1890s. Below right, the Marmaduke and Brush Ridge Railroad was only one of the "dummy lines" constructed just to haul timber out of the St. Francis bottom lands. It ran from Marmaduke to the Mounds area, transporting
timber from the forests to the numerous sawmills located around Marmaduke.
Photo courtesy: Dr. C. S. Starnes
