W. C. Willis, residing in Beaumont, requested from the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe to lease ten acres in Hardin County in order to build a sawmill. Internal company memoranda explored the possibility of selling or leasing the land to Willis. Sale or lease was apparently not approved, for no record has been found that documents the existence of such a mill. One of the arguments against the mill was that it provided outlet for timber thieves poaching on Santa Fe land.