DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Wiergate, out here in Newton County. Now settle in, because this one's got a deal, a town built from scratch, and an ending that surprises you. It all started in 1917, when a Houston lumberman by the name of Robert W.
Wier shook hands — figuratively speaking — with the Lutcher and Moore Lumber Company, who were sitting on vast tracts of virgin yellow pine in this corner of East Texas. That deal set something big in motion. The Wier Long Leaf Lumber Company went to work, and what they built out here was no modest operation.
They put up one of the largest sawmill complexes in all of East Texas, capable of turning out forty million board feet of lumber every single year. Forty million. Let that number ride around in your head a moment.
And they didn't just build a mill — they built a whole world around it. By 1922, Wiergate had roughly five hundred and fifty residences, church buildings, schoolhouses, a hotel, a railroad depot, a post office, a movie theater, a drugstore, a commissary, and various other shops. A town, conjured out of pine forest and a handshake.
The town was named Wiergate after its founder, Robert Wier. But here's where the story demands you pay attention and not look away. Housing in Wiergate was segregated by race and ethnicity.
Three hills — a central hill restricted to Anglos, another to African Americans, and a third to Hispanics. The geography of the place was shaped by those divisions, and that's part of what this ground remembers. Meanwhile, out of that mill every day rolled lumber of all sizes — beams as large as forty to fifty feet in length and thirty by thirty inches square — shipped to market on the Gulf and Northern Railroad.
For twenty-five years, that mill ran without stopping. Continuous operation. Then, on December 31, 1942, it closed.
And the town was sold to an Arkansas salvage company. Now, if you know East Texas lumber history, you know what usually happens next — the company town dries up and blows away like sawdust. But Wiergate didn't.
The original mill was replaced by a new electric mill, and the community kept on living. Most company towns of its era didn't survive the closing of their reason for being. Wiergate did.
And that, right there, might be the most remarkable board foot of the whole story.
What the marker says
A deal, struck in 1917 between Houston lumberman Robert W. Wier and the Lutcher and Moore Lumber Company, owners of vast tracts of virgin yellow pine in this region, led to the construction here of one of East Texas' largest sawmill complexes. The Wier Long Leaf Lumber Company built a mill capable of producing 40 million board feet of lumber annually, and a town consisting of about 550 residences,several church buildings, schoolhouses, a hotel, railroad depot, post office, movie theater, drugstore, commissary, and various other shops by 1922. Housing in the town, named Wiergate after founder Robert Wier,was segregated by race and ethnicity. A central hill was restricted to Anglos, another to African Americans, and the third to Hispanics. Lumber of different sizes including beams as large as 40-50 feet in length and 30 X 30 inches square were shipped to market daily on the Gulf and Northern Railroad. After 25 years of continuous operation the mill was closed on Dec. 31. 1942, and the town was sold to an Arkansas salvage company. Nevertheless, the original mill was replaced by a new electric mill and Wiergate, unlike most East Texas lumber "company towns" of its era, continued to exist as a community.