Correspondence, 1968-1972

This collection is Carroll G. Barber's research file on the history of McNary, a Louisiana lumber town that was relocated from Louisiana to Arizona in 1924 when the William Cady Lumber Company acquired property in Arizona. Barber was actively engaged in documenting this community from the 1960s to the 1990s, and correspondence demonstrates Barber's efforts in compiling this information from an array of sources. This move involved two trainloads of Louisiana-based employees and their families, their personal belongings, and sawmill and logging machinery, and this move even involved a change of the Arizona town's name to McNary. Ultimately, the plant and the community were acquired by Southwest Forest Industries, and it remained in operation until 1979, when a fire consumed the mill. The workforce was largely African American.

The collection contains correspondence, collected articles on the history of McNary, a map of the town in Arizona, pamphlets and publications from the Southwest Forest Industries, and unpublished essays on the town and its lumber industry. Also included are four articles on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona. A 1924 article from American Forests and Forest Life documents the contemporary history of the relocation of the lumber town and its relocation to Arizona, as well as the ecological implications of the abandoned, denuded forest in Louisiana.