History of Texas forests
The vast woodlands of the region, home to many varieties of wildlife before Europeans first showed up, provided economic opportunities for early settlers.
The Big Thicket was mostly uninhabited until heavy settlement from the U.S. began in the mid-19th century, and was even used as a refuge by runaway slaves and other fugitives.
The Rio Grande Valley in South Texas was home to a large palm tree forest when Spaniards first arrived, though today very little of it remains.
Though the growth of the industry provided significant economic benefits to Texas, a lack of regulation allowed business owners to exploit many individuals including appropriating private property and forcing laborers to accept poor working conditions and low wages.
By the start of the 20th century timber was one of the leading economic engines of Texas and had become the state's largest manufacturing enterprise.
[1][2] The subsequent clearing of fields for oil exploration and the related demand for lumber through the first half of the 20th century destroyed much of the remaining forest lands in the state.
[6] The Big Thicket is the southern portion of this region, and has historically been the most densely wooded part of the state, acting as a natural divide between Southeast Texas and coastal Louisiana.
The Texas coastal region has more sparse tree growth but still contains many varieties including Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana), mesquite (Prosopis spp.
[8] The lower Rio Grande Valley has historically been home to a large semitropical forest of Mexican Palmetto (Sabal mexicana).
[9] Though West Texas is mostly grasslands and desert, mountainous areas in the Trans-Pecos portion, such as the Guadalupe Mountains, contain oases of forest lands featuring Bigtooth Maple (Acer grandidentatum), Velvet Ash (Fraxinus velutina), Grey Oak (Quercus grisea), and similar tree species.
For its part the Cross Timbers region, which straddles Texas and Oklahoma, though relatively narrow, was once dense enough to have been considered a natural barrier.
[11] Though these woodland areas have never been a major source of lumber they have nevertheless provided firewood as well as wood for poles, railroad construction and other limited uses.
[14] In the Rio Grande Valley a large forest of Mexican Palmetto (Sabal mexicana) extended from the coast to approximately 80 miles (130 km) inland as late as 1852.
[9] When Europeans first arrived in east Texas the Hasinai, Bidai, and Akokisa tribes lived at the fringes of the Big Thicket lands.
[15] During the early 19th century the gradual westward migration of settlers in North America made the forests of east Texas a popular refuge for runaway slaves and fugitives from justice in the United States.
[14] One of the first steam sawmills in Texas was planned in 1829 by John Richardson Harris, founder of Harrisburg (part of modern Houston).
Over the course of the mid-19th century oak lumber was becoming so scarce in many areas that masonry rapidly began to replace wood construction in many communities.
[1] In 1877 Pennsylvania entrepreneurs Henry J. Lutcher and G. Bedell Moore established a major mill in Orange, creating the largest and most modern operation in the state.
The skidder consisted of a railway car with a crane assembly and long cables that dragged logs from the forest after they were felled.
[23][24] Lumber production became the largest manufacturing enterprise in the state, and the industry continued to grow in the early years of the century.
Texas became the third leading lumber-producing state in the U.S.[1][2] World War I only increased this demand as pine-built ships were common at this time.
[26] The subsequent clearing of fields for oil exploration and the related demand for lumber through the first half of the 20th century destroyed much of the remaining forest lands in the state.
[32] In 1930 the Angelina County Lumber Company planted 200,000 pine seedlings representing one of the first significant efforts at reforestation in the state.
[3] The primary wood product is the Southern yellow pine largely supplying the housing sector in the state.
[3] Cities like Nacogdoches, Lufkin, Beaumont, and Marshall still have large lumber firms that make up a substantial portion of their economies.
As of 2010[update] the World Wide Fund for Nature considers the Piney Woods region to be one of the critically endangered ecoregions of the United States.
They established the first large-scale milling operation in the state, introduced the use of advanced technology, and set quality standards that would be followed by the lumber industry going forward.
[1] Businessmen including Joseph H. Kurth, Thomas L. L. Temple, and W. T. Carter established lumber dynasties that controlled vast regions of the state.
