Boggy Saw Mill

Beginnings

The formation of the Choctawhatchee National Forest, the sawmills, and the naval stores industry were important in the development of Niceville. North Carolina native, Daniel P. McKenzie, owned the Boggy Mill Company (McKenzie Mill) located on the east side of Boggy Bayou, as well as the Consolidated Land and Lumber Company located on the west side of Boggy Bayou. An article in the Pensacola Journal from 1908 reported, "The McKenzie Mill Company of Boggy bought the mill machinery of the Robinson Sawmill for the purpose of carrying it to Boggy to be set up. A large boiler and smoke stack were loaded on the schooner Evelyn at Jefferson Street wharf to be placed in the sawmill of the Consolidated Land and Lumber Company at Boggy Bayou.

Efficiency

The Boggy Mill Company was running its plant on full time, cutting about 21,000 board feet per day. With the mill of the Consolidated Land and Lumber Company ready to start up, Boggy was becoming one of the best towns in this section. The name Boggy signified that it was bogged up with business. There were about ten buildings in the course of construction and everyone was busy. New families were locating rapidly, and at the time the town had four stores, two lumber mills and two turpentine stills.

Worth of the Company

A Pensacola Journal article from December 1908 stated that the worth of the Consolidated Land and Lumber Company's sawmills at Boggy and about 12,000 acres of timber in Santa Rosa and Walton County were valued at $60,000. That value in 2010 was estimated at about $1,500,000.