The Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company was established to harvest and market the virgin longleaf pine (Pinus palustris L.) stands of southern Mississippi during the early 20th century.

When the local timber supply dwindled, the company tried to utilize redwood trees from California, but that operation failed because of high transportation costs.

[1] Longleaf pine was the major species of interest to southern lumbermen due to its straightness and durability from a high resin content.

The river system of transporting logs to sawmills in south Mississippi ended in the late 19th century, when the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad (G&SIRR) was constructed.

The main line of the G&SIRR extended 160 miles (257 kilometers) from Gulfport, north and northwest to Jackson the State capital.

In 1915, the Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company began construction of an all-electric sawmill at the town of D'Lo in Simpson County, Mississippi.

Because of the remote location, it became necessary for Finkbine-Guild to build houses, a company store, dining facilities, a school, a hotel, a barber shop, and a hospital.

[10] In San Francisco Bay near the city of Sausalito, California, Finkbine-Guild invested heavily in construction of a dock and loading facility.

The company owned five oil-burning ships, called The Redwood Line, that transported the logs from San Francisco Bay through the Panama Canal to Gulfport, Mississippi.

The ships were unloaded at Gulfport, and logs were transferred onto railroad flatcars for transportation north to the Finkbine mills in Wiggins or D'Lo, where the redwood was processed into finished lumber.

The Farms Company advertised the cutover timberland for sale to entice Slavs and Poles from the northern U.S. to move to Mississippi and buy land along the Finkbine-Guild logging roads.

[7] However, clearing the land of stumps and attempting to grow farm crops in the thin soils was hard work, leading to failure during the long, hot summers.

Those larger food-processing companies consolidated their production at locations in other U.S. States, and the Wiggins pickle factory closed in 1983, ending the final legacy of the Finkbine-Guild era.