Lutcher & Moore, having been out of the manufacturing side of the lumber industry since the beginning of the 1930s, operated a retail and wholesale distribution yard at Orange. The years of World War II encouraged them to manufacture rough lumber in small mills north of Orange; the mills were probably leased. Additionally, the company opened a planing operation, probably at the Orange distributing yard, where, by 1948, the mill produced between 150,000 to 200,000 feet monthly of finished lumber. The Gulf Coast Lumberman reported that officials were contemplating constructing a new Lutcher & Moore sawmill operation that would rival those of the glory days at the turn of the century. Lutcher & Moore “still owns a vast amount of second-growth timber-growing land in Texas and Louisiana both, and they plan to follow good forestry practices, selective logging, etc., and thus have indefinite supply of timber ahead.”