The New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad Company hired an experienced civil engineer, James B. Clarke (ca.

Ponchatoula is a Choctaw word meaning "hanging hair" referring to the beautiful Spanish moss which drapes many of the local trees.

When the war ended, the railroad line was repaired, a new train depot constructed, and tranquility returned to the little piney woods community.

The Ponchatoula community changed completely in 1921 when two large cypress lumbering companies located at the south edge of town.

The 1920s saw the construction of a new city hall and fire station, a new high school, a modern theater, improved street and municipal services, and dozens of new businesses.

The prosperity of the 1920s ebbed as the hard times of the Depression arrived with the closing of the two lumber mills in 1929, and continued through the 1930s mirroring the national economic crisis.

Ponchatoula's economy was aided during the Depression by the flourishing strawberry industry and the reopening of a cypress lumber company on one of the former mill sites.

A scrap drive led by the local school children yielded a vast amount of iron needed to produce the weapons of war.

The community's outstanding contribution to the war effort was recognized when the Navy launched an oil tanker named the USS Ponchatoula, which served in the Pacific.

The main street began filling up with beautiful brick buildings as shops, banks and restaurants were built to accommodate the growing population.

Ponchatoula is small, but it has a number of attractions including a sign on the outskirts of town with how many miles it lies from South Dakota's Wall Drug store.

The Chamber of Commerce office is located on Highway 22 at the railroad tracks and has information about these and other sights in Ponchatoula and the surrounding area.