ILLUSTRATED FLORA OF EAST TEXAS - Brit - Botanical Research ...

186 INTRODUCTION/HISTORY OF BIG THICKET
FIG. 103/ PARK-LIKE OLD GROWTH LONGLEAF PINE FOREST 12 MILES
NORTHEAST OF DOUCETTE,TYLER CO., 1907–1908. PHOTO COURTESY
TEXAS FORESTRY MUSEUM,LUFKIN.
For the first one or two generations following
settlement, the settlers’ impact on the
Big Thicket was slight, with vegetation
rapidly reclaiming small building sites or
farmsteads once they were abandoned
(Owens 1978). However, major change
was inevitable—lumbering in the region
began in the 1850s, with at least three
steam sawmills operating in the vicinity of
Orange and Beaumont. Given the lack of
transportation facilities, most of the logs
(e.g., bald-cypress) to supply the mills were
floated down the Sabine and Neches rivers
(McLeod 1972; Sitton 1995) (Fig. 101).
Bald-cypress, sometimes called the “wood
eternal” because of its decay-resistant
durable heartwood (Hart & Price 1990),
was important in the first timber boom, as
were white oak and other hardwoods—
cypress shingles and lumber, white oak
staves, hickory barrel hoops, and furnituregrade
walnut planking were all important
early commodities (Sitton 1995) (Fig. 102).
It wasn’t until the 1870s and 1880s,
with the construction of the Houston-Eastand-West-Texas
Railroad, that the western
part of the Big Thicket was readily accessible
FIG. 104/ SHAY LOCOMOTIVE AND LOG TRAIN.PHOTO COURTESY STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIV., FOREST HISTORY COLLECTIONS.