POWERGRAMS

16 The Bethune-Kennedy House built in 1840 on the military three-notch road (now Kirkland Street) is the oldest original structure in Abbeville and was first listed on the National Register 43 years ago. On the street behind the twin-front-door Creole cottage once stood the Southeast Alabama Agriculture School, which opened in 1889 as the first in the state to offer free secondary education. In 1943 it became Abbeville High School, which recently moved to a new campus along U.S. Highway 431. Not far from the 431 junction, Abbeville Christian Academy is the home of the 2020-21 Alabama Independent School Association class A girls state softball, volleyball and basketball champions, a first-time feat in the 51-year history of AISA. The Abbeville Christian boys in 2016 became one of only two AISA schools to win baseball, basketball and football titles in the same year. Across the road from the academy is Henry County Veterans Memorial Park, which salutes soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice. Marble pillars list the names of 280 men who died during the Civil War, 33 who perished in World War II, 31 during World War I, 10 in the Vietnam War, five in the Korean War and Justin Ray Yoemans from the Iraq War. Abbeville could have been the scene for "Back to the Future" and similar movies set in the 1950s: It was the 2020 filming location of "Second Samuel," starring Bethany Anne Lind, with a scene highlighting the Huggin' Mollys soda fountain. In downtown Abbeville, it's yesterday once more. THE YELLASCAPE IS PROMINENT Celebrating its 51 st year in business, Great Southern Wood Preserving Inc. is the epitome of a small-town success story, growing from a financially frail fence-post treatment plant to a $1.5 billion business with almost 2,000 employees. Jimmy Rane has piloted the company from the first day of operation, when he simultaneously ran a law office, was a county judge and worked around the clock getting Great Southern going. Rane's company by 2006 was named the world's No. 1 producer of pressure-treated lumber by Building Products Digest. Great Southern Wood now includes a family of four sawmills, five remanufacturing facilities, 14 treating plants – including in Abbeville, Mobile and Tuscumbia – and a 28-state territory serviced by its trucking company Greenbush Logistics. These facilities service do-it-yourself retail home centers, pro dealers and retail building material and industrial segments. The company has an international division that imports products primarily from South America and exports to 38 countries. Customers everywhere have learned to look for the trademarked Yella Tag. What that's meant for the local economy, beginning with Lawson Curry in 1970, has been reliable employment in good- paying jobs. Mitchell Carter began his career at Great Southern in the company's management trainee program 16 years ago, leading to long stints in Brookhaven, Mississippi, and Irvington, before being named general manager of the Abbeville treating plant and Greenbush Wood Products in January. Standing near a water tower bearing a huge YellaWood banner, Carter echoes Rane's experience of not knowing "the difference between a 2-by-4 and a 2-by-6" when he was starting. Now Carter supervises more than 100 workers. He walks through the outdoor yard where untreated lumber is lined up on truck trailers alongside products Great Southern distributes to stores along with YellaWood. As he talks, two employees staple tiny tags on every board, making sure to "keep them nice, neat, straight" and correct for each type of wood. Inside the largest building on the property, untreated bundles of Southern yellow pine of various sizes and lengths are stacked two-high and pushed by a forklift onto a tram system that delivers them into long steel "pressure vessels." Behind those are tall, green steel tanks where preservatives are mixed and then pumped inside the cylinders to make YellaWood resistant to insects and other challenges of Mother Nature. Employees in an upstairs control room monitor computer Business offices are hidden behind replica of a Standard service station. YellaWood is emblazoned on the water tower entering Abbeville. Yella Tags are on thousands of boards at Rane's warehouse. PHOTOS COURTESY GREAT SOUTHERN WOOD PRESERVING

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