GoManyLA

History — Industry & Civil Rights

Sawmills & Civil Rights

From the pine-scented company towns born of the 1896 railroad boom to a mid-century campus now on the National Register of Historic Places — two landmarks that define Sabine Parish's 20th century.

Est. 1899 — Sawmill Company Town

The Village of Fisher

The economic isolation of Sabine Parish was shattered in 1896 by the arrival of the Kansas City Southern Railway, sparking a massive timber boom. The Village of Fisher, established in 1899 by the Louisiana Long Leaf Lumber Company, survives today as a perfectly preserved example of a turn-of-the-century sawmill company town.

Visitors can explore the 17,000-square-foot Ole Mill Store, housed in the original company commissary — one of the best-preserved industrial heritage sites in rural Louisiana.

1896
Railroad Arrives
1899
Fisher Founded
17,000 ft²
Ole Mill Store
Preserved
Company Town

Built 1957 — National Register of Historic Places 2020

Sabine High School Revitalization

Built in 1957 as a segregated campus for African American students, Sabine High School operated until desegregation in 1970. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2020 for its mid-century modern design and educational history under Jim Crow laws, the campus is a defining landmark of the civil rights struggle in rural Louisiana.

The campus is currently undergoing a major federally-funded revitalization project to transform it into a community center honoring its civil rights legacy.

1957
Year Built
1970
Desegregation
2020
NRHP Listed
Active
Revitalization

The 1896 railroad that built Fisher also transformed Many into the parish seat it is today. Read the full story in Many, Louisiana: The Heart of Sabine Parish .