Bienville Lumber LLC, A Hunt-Tolko Partnership, Taylor, Louisiana, USA
The second joint venture between Tolko and Louisiana-based Hunt Forest Products, this state-of-the-art sawmill project in Bienville Parish near Taylor, LA, was announced in 2021. Construction began in early 2022, and the mill completed its commissioning process in 2024. Along with skilled job opportunities, the mill provides a local outlet for the abundant inventory of southern yellow pine that exists in this region.
The mill employs approximately 130 people and continues to ramp up its production capacity.
Production
The mill produced over 160 million board feet of southern yellow pine lumber in 2024 and is looking to more than double that annual output in the next several years.
Taylor, Louisiana, USA
Bienville Parish is located in the northwest section of Louisiana. It includes four towns — Arcadia (parish seat and largest municipality), Gibsland, Mount Lebanon and Ringgold. There are also six villages and five unincorporated communities in the region including Taylor, which is closest to the mill. The parish has a combined population of approximately 13,000 people. The area is named after Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, an early governor of French Louisiana.
An early notable resident was Ruben Drake, who moved his family from South Carolina in the 1830s to what he named Mount Lebanon, the first permanent settlement in the parish. He established a church and school, which evolved into Mount Lebanon University. Bienville Parish is also known in popular culture as the place where Bonnie and Clyde were killed on May 23, 1934.