Laurel, Mississippi

Laurel, The City Beautiful, is 40 miles north of Hattiesburg, in the middle of Yellow Pine country, Mississipi. It has had its ups and downs since its beginnings in the mid 1800’s as a lumber town. By the end of World War I, Laurel was producing more yellow pine than any other place in the world. Four major mills were producing more than a million board feet a day, enough to stretch 189 miles!

The Great Depression saw the end of the lumber industry, and Laurel slowly deteriorated until the late 30’s, when William H. Mason, an apprentice of Thomas Edison, patented a method of turning wood waste into a wood fiberboard that was used extensively throughout World War II and it still in high demand today as building doors and interior millwork. Masonite has a presence internationally, but the local Masonite plant is still one of the areas leading employers, using 27 acres worth of timber a day! 

There was a short oil boom in the 1970’s, then Laurel went dormant again until locals Ben and Erin Napier begin to refurbish houses in the historic district about seven years ago. Erin kept a blog on their projects that was noticed by HGTV and became a television program called “Hometown”, now in its sixth season. We stopped for a few days to see what’s happening.

The temperature has been about 95 degrees, with humidity in the mid 70’s. Donna and Sasha have elected to stay in the truck with the ac maxed out!

The Hometown crew works out of The Scotsman Company, where their workshop is on view. The public is not allowed to tour the shop for obvious reasons, but a quick peek through a window gave us a look at the extensive equipment that any woodworker would love to have!

The Scotsman Company has been very successful, and that success has been reinvested in downtown Laurel. New infrastructure, with street improvements have made a somewhat haphazard design easier to navigate.

Along with Ms Pearls soul food and Grits ‘n Some, the Scent Library and Bird Dog Cafe, one of the most outstanding businesses in town is Hellfighters Motorcycle Company. 

This shop is huge. It’s primarily a motorcycle shop, but was founded as a support group for recovering male addicts. Every penny of profits is reinvested in an in house faith based program. Hundreds of men have graduated from the program, and some work in the store. It’s a worthy cause that has helped countless men overcome addiction issues. I wanted to make a donation via that blacked out Indian motorcycle, but had to settle for a few souvenirs….

Many of the motorcycles on display for sale are previously owned, and some are customized in unusual ways or are vintage machines.

Displays of apparel and trinkets are stuffed into every corner of the building. Gloves, helmets, leather goods and all the way up to $50,000 motorcycles are available.

There’s one area where we felt right at home.

Oh, and then there’s this:

In addition to having a complete and well stocked armory, the back room of the store is a collection of new and used parts for just about every motorcycle ever made: fenders, seats, lights, cables, engine and transmission parts, nuts and bolts! It a junkyard junky’s dream come true! There were eight rows of parts like this one.

We’ve enjoyed a bit of time in Mississippi, and our time in space 44 at Sleepy Hollow RV Park is no exception.

The weather has been interesting the last few days with thunderstorms, heavy rain, and wind. The trees around the park seem to protect us for the most part, but whenever we get a NOAA alert, we get nervous! The locals tell us that 99% of the storms don’t amount to anything, but there’s that 1%…..and as I write this, at 11:00 pm, it’s raining buckets, the lightening is cracking and the thunder is rolling. One “boom” just now was felt, as well as heard! The weather app shows that we have another hour of this, so we’ll need to stay up to comfort Sasha for a little while yet….and ourselves…..