Argent Lumber

Company History: Argent built their first 3’ gauge logging railroad in 1916 from a cypress log loadout near Tillman south 7 miles to the company mill in Hardeeville, South Carolina. As logging proceeded, this line was extended west along the cypress swamps of the Savannah River. A second route was opened running east into hilly terrain that required log trains to be double headed. By the closing years of the Depression, these regions had been well harvested. Argent constructed a new line south from Hardeeville which crossed the Savannah River on a 200’ steel bridge and into cypress swamps on the Georgia side of the border. A fleet of seven locomotives (2-6-0’s and 2-8-0’s) worked the line. They were all wood burners using slab wood from the mill as fuel and were equipped with Rushton stacks. All locomotives and rolling stock were equipped with link-and-pin couplers (since Argent was not a common carrier and did not interchange, the coupler law did not apply.) With the railroad and mill in reasonable working order and trees still to be cut, Argent Lumber Company was laid low in 1956 by a 33% increase in the Federal minimum wage. The property was sold and the railroad closed for good. All of the locomotives were saved from the scrappers torch. At the time of its closing, Argent was the second to last narrow gauge steam powered logging line in the nation (West Side Lumber Company in California was the last.)

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