The Douglas Newsom sawmill and planing mill was listed in the Directory of Texas Manufacturers 1956-1958. The Douglas Newsom Sawmill at Ore City, in 1966, employed less than ten workers, according to Samson's directory of that year. The mill produced rough and dressed lumber plus other items of manufacturing.
In November 1953, Texas Parade carried a short article about the Doug Newsom sawmill near Ore City. Newsom was milling some very large cypress and pine logs, some as old as seventy-five years. These logs, known as “sinkers,” were discovered by Newsom in Big Cypress Bayou during a drought. The low water in the Bayou exposed the logs. Recovering these logs was a slow process, but Newsom was milling fifty thousand feet a month from the recovered sawtimber.