Gloster

History

Gloster was incorporated on March 11, 1884. It was largely founded as a railroad town. Gloster was named after the engineer who put the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley R.R. through in the 1880s. Drax Biomass operates a per year wood pellet production facility in Gloster. The facility was expected to create 45 jobs, and is called Amite BioEnergy. Governor Tate Reeves of Mississippi came down to Gloster to announce Claw Forestry Services will build a $200 million sawmill on about 50 acres comprising the former Georgia-Pacific mill site and the adjoining former elementary school property. The elementary school has been closed for many years. Mayor Jerry Norwood said the announcement is "one of the proudest moments in my life, and my proudest moment as mayor." William VanDevender, chief executive officer of Claw, said once the plant is up and running, it should produce about 250 million board-feet of lumber a year, using about 1 million tons of logs annually, and make sales of more than $100 million a year. VanDevender and other Claw officials "recognize the quality of the workforce and the quality of the timber basket in Southwest Mississippi," Reeves said after the presentation. "This will benefit not just the 130 families that have workers at the plant, but boost timber owners across a four to five-county region." The new sawmill facility started operation in 2024. Also a grant of $52,000,000 was received to rebuild the Gloster Southern Railroad on the existing right-of-way.

Race & ethnicity