'Flood of 1929' heavily impacted the prosperity, fate of River Falls, Ala.

Ruins of Horseshoe Lumber Company at River Falls, Ala.

In March, I wrote a column about one of the most severe weather events ever to impact lower Alabama, the Flood of 1929, which was arguably the worst weather event in the history of the area. Between March 13-15, 1929, Evergreen received 19.31 inches of rain, and newspapers of the time called it “Conecuh County’s greatest flood.” As you might have imagined, neighboring counties were also heavily impacted by the storm.

A couple of weeks ago, I found a news story that was reprinted in the Dec. 2, 1971 edition of The Evergreen Courant. That story discussed the impact of the 1929 flood and carried the following editor’s note -  “This article, which was published in The Mobile Press-Register, date not known, but some 20 years ago, was brought to The Courant by M.W. Edwards of Rt. 1, Repton and will be of interest to readers.”

The story carried the headline “Change in Covington County: Once-Prosperous Sawmill Idled by Flood of 1929” and was written by Mobile Press-Register reporter Ford Cook. What follows is the complete text from the story.

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RIVER FALLS, Ala., Feb. 8 – Once a teeming, active town with huge sawmills and several business, this town is gradually showing signs of ‘giving way.’

Located almost on the banks of Conecuh River in northwest Covington County, River Falls in 1920 had climbed to a population of more than 1,100 and by 1950 had dropped to less than a third of that.

The era of the 20s was the peak of operation for this town which was established as a sawmill and farming center in the latter part of the 19th century. It was incorporated as a municipality in 1901 and has remained so since, though much of the business and industrial activity has shifted elsewhere.

One of the more glaring reminders of the active past for River Falls is the remains of what was once a $200,000 sawmill operation here. Standing on the banks of Conecuh River in the edge of the town’s limits of today is the concrete understructure of the mill part of this once prosperous lumber producer.

The Horseshoe Lumber Co. plant – sawmill, planer mill, dry kiln and other facilities – at its peak of operation covered about 20 acres, including the log pond. The original mill at this site was built in the 90s and it was rebuilt with the latest in the then modern machinery in 1923 at the cost of more than $150,000. This saw mill operated and flourished for six years until the 1929 flood when Conecuh River spread from its banks and wrecked havoc with the Horseshoe mill and idled it forever.

With the 1923 remodeling, much of the mill operation had been changed to a new source of power – steam generated electricity – with modern equipment throughout. The flood waters undermined some of the mill’s foundations, washed out miles of the company’s railroads, filled the log pond with silt and wrecked many of the buildings.

Operators of the mill decided, following a survey of the flood damage, that it was useless to rebuild it and many of the old-timers around River Falls say a large part of the machinery, damaged by water, was sold for junk and the entire lumber operation for Horseshoe ceased.

During its heyday, Horseshoe Lumber Co. not only operated the most modern lumber manufacturing plant in this area, it also ran eight locomotives on about 100 miles of rails to bring logs for shipment.

With the fall of this one large lumber firm in 1929, River Falls has shown a continued slackening in its pace with population figures showing lower and lower each time a census is taken.

What remains of the town is still active and progressive, but the old spark, kindled by the virgin pine forests, has gradually died away for River Falls.

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The story also included the photo above, and the caption below the picture read as follows – “RELIC OF RIVER FALLS: In River Falls, a small town near Andalusia in Covington County, Ala., there can be seen concrete columns, which once supported part of a $200,000 sawmill-planer mill plant there. These columns in an old, grown-up area near Conecuh River are all that remain of the teeming industrial area of nearly 30 years ago. The plant was known as the Horseshoe Lumber Co. in the days of its operations prior to flood damage from Conecuh River’s overflowing in 1929.”

If you’re interested in reading more about the Flood of 1929, visit http://leepeacock2010.blogspot.com/2013/03/flood-of-1929-caused-havoc-in-conecuh.html for more details.