Between the years 1948 and 1951, the Kirby Lumber Corporation concluded that the consolidation of its five mills at Honey Island, Silsbee, Bessmay, Call, and Voth into one modern plant would be the best means of realizing the finished lumber and by-products production from its vast timber holdings. Silsbee was chosen as the site for such a mill, and complete, automatic, and conveyorized handling of logs and lumber was the principal consideration in designing the facilities. Salable products from each log was to rise from 60% at the old mills to 80% at the new mill. One hundred percent of every log was to be utilizedthe “refuse” being shipped to the East Texas Pulp and Paper Company mill at Evadale. The site at times employed 800 personnel. On September 18, 1963, the Kirby board of directors authorized the construction of a new plywood plant at Silsbee. Southern Pine had never been manufactured into plywood on a commercial scale before and Kirby Lumber Corporation was an early innovator in establishing the now widespread industry. In 1952, according to The Gulf Coast Lumberman, the Kirby Lumber Corporation sold the commissary to private interests. In 1955, 500 persons were employed at the mill and another 700 were employed in the woods. Annual payroll was $4 million. Two specially designed storage tanks were designed to serve as mill “ponds,” storing over five million feet of logs ahead of the milling operations. Sixty percent of the logs were brought to the mill by rail in 1955, and trucks hauled the rest. The mill was rated at 20,000 board feet per hour, and the mill ran nights regularly, approaching 325,000 board feet per double-shift day. Total production for 1973 was 68,000,000 board feet; for 1975, production was 59,400,000 board feet. After Santa Fe sold Kirby Lumber Corporation to Louisiana-Pacific in 1986, manufacturing was shut down. The plywood and sawmill plants were scrapped in 1987-1988. The particleboard plant was started back up and an OSB plant built.