Lockhart is located in southern Covington County at 31°0′41″N 86°21′2″W / 31.01139°N 86.35056°W / 31.01139; -86.35056 (31.011435, -86.350652),[2] 1 mile (2 km) north of the Florida state line.

The mill was erected to handle the dense forests of yellow pine in what was known as the "Jackson Tract".

The town was named for Standard Oil magnate and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania financier, Charles Lockhart.

More than a hundred immigrant laborers recruited in cities in the North were held against their will in a walled compound on the site.

Military enlistments prior to U.S. entry in World War II caused a labor shortage, or company officials sold their holdings and the land to the residents after cutting all the timber in the area and deciding not to wait for replanted timber to mature.

Jackson Lumber Company also donated much land to the state that was replanted and developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps into Geneva State Forest in neighboring Geneva County.

"[8] This land had little value after it had been clear cut, the practice of the time, and being unable to sell the now-deforested acreage during the Great Depression, the company returned it to the state in the 1930s rather than pay taxes on it.