Following the disastrous hurricane of 1906, James G. Pace from Hazlehurst, Georgia, purchased what was left of Emory Fiske Skinner's massive logging/lumber business in Escambia County near what is Scenic Highway today. Pace moved and rebuilt the mill in the Pace area in 1907. It was located just a few blocks off Highway 90 on Chumuckla Road. This area in 1910 was called Pea Ridge, but by 1912 it was known as "Pace." Pace Road which runs in front of the present Dixon School was the site of housing for supervisory level employees. In the 1920's J. G. Pace was sent to France, as a delegate of the US Government, to study forestry methods. Upon returning, he put into practice what he had learned.

The children of James G. Pace and Caroline Ashley Pace were Burgess, who owned and operated the Andrew Jackson Hotel; Myrtice, who married E.F. Stone, Coast Guard pilot; Ashley D., one of the main founders of the paper mill in Cantonment, and John C. who is well remembered since the U.W.F. Library bears his name. After the death of his first wife, James G. Pace married Winona Rabb. Their children were Mary Catherine, Virginia, James G. (Jim) Jr., Winona, and Frances.

After the mill closed in 1929 a turpentine business continued on the same location for a number of years but this did not employ the numbers of people which the logging mill had.

(Above from Historical Sketch of Pace, by Ed Nugent. Read the entire text by clicking here).