The firm of Noble and Sheldon Lumber Company purchased Joseph M. Tryon's sawmill in 1882 and relocated it two miles north of the Tryon site. The new site became known as Noble's Switch and, later, Plank. It was sold in 1885 to J.W. Middlebrook and Brothers. J. W. Middlebrook's brothers were R. Oscar Middlebrook and E.S. Middlebrook. George Ewing, later of the Devers Lumber Company in 1900, was a bookkeeper for the Middlebrooks.
The mill's capacity was increased from 20,000 board feet per day to 45,000 board feet per day in 1887 and 25,000 feet on the planer. By the following year the mill was rated at 50,000 feet and employed sixty men. Bridge timbers were a specialty. The mill was sold to J.A. Bentley & Company in 1890, but R. Oscar Middlebrook stayed on to work for the new owners. The 12-inch by 20-inch steam engine cut 300,000 feet in a week in 1891, with a top day's cut of 60,000 feet of lumber. The timber was cut out by November 1896, and the mill was dismantled and moved to Zimmerman, Louisiana, where Bentley and Zimmerman owned another mill.
W. T. Block notes the Middlebrook brothers were sportsmen and “avid bear hunters.” Several of the Beaumont lumbermen would join the Middlebrooks and their large pack of hounds for hunting in the Plank area.
The logging tram equipment worked sixty men and consisted in 1888 five miles of tramway and nine cars; in 1895, a Baldwin Mogul locomotive was added to the inventory.