The Texas Forestry Museum: Seeing the Forest for the Trees
East Texans coming of age in the 1920’s didn’t hear the monotonous hum and clang of a drilling rig. They heard the snap and crunch of trees hitting the ground. Deep East Texas has its share of oil rigs, sure enough, but the lives of most East Texans have been inextricably linked not with oil, but with timber.
East Texas forests, the lifeblood of a majority of Deep East Texans through the twentieth century, still dominate the landscape of the eastern third of the state. They are not massive old growth stands like those of the Pacific Northwest. A lumber boom a century earlier eliminated prehistoric woodlands early settlers found when they came west to the new Republic and later the young State of Texas. Towards the end of the 19th century much of East Texas was bleak and barren. But nature took over and covered the area with trees once again.
The second Texas timber boom began some time after World War I when second growth forests had matured. This time, things would be different. Texas foresters understood and respected Texas woodlands. Slash and burn cutting has been replaced by harvesting and management.
The timber industry of today is a vital part of the Texas economy. According to the Texas Forestry Association (TFA) the forest products industry is the third largest manufacturing sector in the state. Mills, sawmills and wood products plants number over 1500. Close to a hundred thousand people are employed within the industry. Hundreds of thousands more are dependent upon it.
Founders and leaders of the modern forest industry of Texas not only saw the value and importance of the industry and its renewable resource, they also understood how important its history is to East Texas. Under the guidance of the TFA they established the only museum devoted to the forest industry in Texas. The Texas Forestry Museum, located in Lufkin, Texas, provides visitors an unprecedented opportunity to understand the land, the people and the forests of East Texas.
The effort to preserve and protect the history of the industry began in 1957 when the Association considered creating a museum to preserve artifacts scattered through East Texas. Planning and fundraising for a museum began for a facility to be located on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College in Nacogdoches. That facility was never built. The project was put on hold when other needs became more pressing.
The Texas Forestry Association built a new home in Lufkin in 1967. A steam train that is now a prominent outside exhibit at the museum was moved to the TFA site in 1970. While the engine and rail cars were being moved and set up the museum once again took priority. The Lufkin Kiwanis club sponsored the museum in Lufkin as a service to the community. The Texas Forestry Museum opened on land next to the TFA headquarters in 1976.
Original exhibits of the museum included the steam engine with rail cars, a fire tower, and a good collection of tools, equipment and photographs. A second building, a train depot from Camden, Texas, was moved to the property in 1980. A new wing was added in 1986, providing more exhibit space, a library and a classroom. Today the museum has three exhibit halls, outdoor exhibits and nature trails. It also holds an important archive for students and scholars of East Texas forestry.
Open year round except for major holidays and free to the public, the museum provides an exceptional opportunity to learn about East Texas, its forests and its people. The main exhibit hall has a steam engine display as its centerpiece. The engine is a working model surrounded by drawings, graphs, and explanations of how a steam engine works. A photographic mural depicting the movement of timber from the harvest to finished products moves visitors around the main hall. Visitors who follow the mural discover tools and implements of the process along the way. There are also exhibits and photos representing mill camp life and memorabilia from the company store.
Exhibits in the second hall were funded primary by Southland Paper Mills Foundation. Southland pioneered paper production at a mill only a few miles down the road from the museum. Through photos, exhibits and dioramas the museum gives visitors a virtual tour of the Southland plant and tells of its history. Founded in January 1940, the mill was the first to produce newsprint in the south. Abatibi, the Canadian firm who owns the mill now, closed it down a couple years ago. Once, however, the Mill was one of the region’s largest employers. The mill produced eight percent of the nation’s newsprint in 1990.
The third hall has an exhibit honoring the U.S. Forest Service. National forests encompass 675,000 acres, about six percent of total forestlands. One display that catches the attention of visitors is a cabin from a fire tower with a life size Smokey Bear standup beside it. For more than fifty years Texas forests were protected in part by fire lookout towers standing above the tree line. Towers were built all across East Texas, many by the Civilian Conservation Corp during the depression. Thirty percent of all forest fires were reported by lookouts during the years the towers were in use.
The third hall also has an exhibit that explores the science of cartography. Charts, maps, photos and displays show how cartography progressed from a primitive science to one that uses the most modern technologies, from hand drawings and survey notes to satellite imagery.
At the main entrance of the museum and surrounded by the exhibit halls Visitors will find a well-stocked gift shop offering books, clothing, memorabilia, toys and hats for the kids. Since the museum itself is open without charge visitors have an even greater incentive to pick up a book or memento.
A walkway outside leads to an outdoor exhibit area behind the museum. The steam train with a timber car, crane car, and bright red caboose is hard to miss. Visitors can stand in the engine cab behind its massive boiler and imagine what engineers experienced in the days of steam. The caboose is actually a reproduction since the original caboose burned in the 1990’s. It’s open to the public too. Kids love climbing up in the crow’s nest to look out the windows where railroad men once kept watch on the long train ahead of them.
Next to the train sits the second building added to the museum: the train depot from Camden, TX. The depot is not open except for special events. Visitors can peek into the building through the windows, however, and see it still looks the way it did when train passengers and railroad men marched through it daily. A shed next to the depot protects a 1946 Chevy log truck and a Russell Junior Road Grader, a contraption pulled by mules requiring two men to operate. Next to the shed stands a complete fire tower rising into the sky. Looking up at tower it’s easy to feel a weakness in the knees thinking of how forest service personnel climbed those dozens and dozens of steps day after day.
Two wooded acres donated to the Museum behind the outdoor exhibits are traversed by the museum’s Urban Wildscape Trail. The trail winds through the trees and brush, giving visitors a look at the flora of East Texas woodlands. A small outdoor theater/classroom is tucked away along side the trail.
The Texas Forestry Museum does much more than house static exhibits. It hosts a Kids Club to encourage participation in museum programs and keep children involved. Three traveling exhibits, or “trunks,” are offered to educators who use them at their schools to teach fire safety, forestry and woodland lore. Locals and visitors are invited to participate in a number of camps and celebrations through out the year.
Visitors should plan on two or three hours at least to fully explore the museum. The exhibit halls are rich in history and artifacts. Folks who are not familiar with Texas woodlands will want to spend some time on the Wildscape Trail. A picnic lunch at one of the tables at the trail head is a great way to end the visit.
The museum is located in Lufkin, TX on State Highway 103, Atkinson Drive, a few blocks inside the east loop on the north side of the street. Lufkin is a small city of 32 thousand, a hundred miles north of Houston on U.S. 59. After leaving the museum visitors can take 103 east a few miles and see the paper mill depicted in the museum.
Before the dawn of the twentieth century Americans spread across the continent believing the bounty to be endless. They used up the land and the moved on often leaving behind wastelands. In its early days Texans treated the land and the forests without much regard until not much was left. By the time the land had healed and forests of pine once again covered the eastern third of the state wiser heads prevailed. Large tracts of woodlands have been set aside for recreation and preservation. Many hundreds of thousands of acres more are carefully tended. Where once settlers couldn’t see the trees for the forest, East Texans now see the forest for the trees and the great abundance they give to all. This is the story told at the Texas Forestry Museum.
