University of Texas at Austin
College of Liberal ArtsCredits & Sources
Aldridge Sawmill and the East Texas Logging Bonanza exhibit was developed from reports by John Ippolito, Velicia Bergstrom, and other staff members with the USDA Forest Service and the Passports in Time Program (see below for citations). A critical reference for their work was Sawdust Empire by Robert Maxwell.
Images for the exhibits were provided by the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, the USDA Forestry Service, The History Museum at Diboll, the East Texas Research Center Forest History Collection at Stephen F. Austin State University, the Texas Forestry Museum at Lufkin, the Texas Department of Transportation, and Texas A&M at Dallas (Native Trees of Texas Database).
TBH Co-Editor Susan Dial created and edited the exhibits and, along with Contributing Editor Steve Dial, contributed to the writing. Education Advisor Carol Schlenk wrote and designed the teaching curriculum. Webmaster Meg Kemp brought the exhibit online and created the colorful collage of images on the introductory page. Texas General Land Office archeologist Bob D. Skiles and Jonathon Gerland of The History Center in Diboll, Texas, served as exhibit reviewers. Financial support for the exhibits was provided through a grant from the Temple-Inland Foundation and support from the Friends of TARL.
John Ippolito is Forest Archeologist for the USDA National Forests and Grasslands in Texas, and Velicia Bergstrom is Forest Heritage Program Manager at Kisatchie National Forest, Pineville, Louisiana. She formerly served as Assistant Forest Archeologist for the USDA Texas program and was responsible for overseeing investigations and reporting for the Passports in Time project at the Aldridge site.
Links
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/drl02
Historical overview of the lumber industry in East Texas in the Handbook
of Texas Online.
East Texas Digital Archives
Extensively annotated and illustrated descriptions of archives and collections
at Stephen F. Austin State University including the East Texas Research Center, Steen Library,and the Forest History Collection.
http://www.treetexas.com/
Website of the Texas Forestry Museum in Lufkin. The Museum offers a historic
look at early logging, lumberjacks, sawmill towns, and the development of
one of Texas' oldest industries—wood products. Visitors will find a
full-sized logging locomotive, loader, and caboose; a forest fire lookout
tower; early equipment used to haul logs and make lumber; and other relics
from logging's early years.
http://thehistorycenteronline.com/
The History Center in Diboll, Texas, is a new public history and archives
center that collects, preserves, and makes available the history of the
region for educational use and for researchers. In addition to manuscripts,
business and local government records, maps, newspapers, oral histories,
books, and more than 200,000 photographs, the center has interpretive exhibits
inside and on the grounds.
http://www.easttexashistorical.org/
Website of the East Texas Historical Association
https://www.fs.usda.gov/texas/
National Forests and Grasslands in Texas, USDA Forest Service.
https://texasforesttrail.com/
Texas Historical Commission's Texas Forest Trail website offers an events
calendar and a search engine to explore information on historic sites in
the region.
http://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/
Texas Historic Sites Atlas includes an Historic Sawmill Data provided by the Texas Forestry Museum. See the entry for the Kirby Lumber Company at Aldridge or use the "quick search" function to see entries for other East Texas sawmills.
http://www.plttexas.org/
Website of Project Learning Tree, an environmental education program designed
for teachers and other educators with students in pre-kindergarten through
grade 12. Teachers can download curricula, such as a region-to-region environmental
"exchange box." Sponsored by the Texas Forestry Association and
Texas Forest Service.
http://www.easttexashistorical.org/
The East Texas Historical Association site offers information on club meetings
in Nacogdoches as well as newspaper articles on historical topics.
http://www.cah.utexas.edu/
The website of the Center for American History at the University of Texas
at Austin. The center has extensive document and photograph collections
pertaining to Texas history, including a large archive on East Texas.
www.texasbeyondhistory.net/tejas/
"Tejas: Life and Times of the Caddo" is a vividly illustrated
thematic educational exhibit on the ancient and modern Caddo Indians, the
first people to "log" the East Texas forests for poles for their
dome-shaped houses and the people who gave Texas its name.
www.texasbeyondhistory.net/kids/caddo/
"World of the Caddo," a children's educational exhibit on the
Caddo, in five sections. See "Living in Grass Houses" for more
on how the Caddo cut pine timber and constructed their enormous houses and
temples using stone tools.
Print Sources
Bergstrom, Velicia and John Ippolito
1996 Investigations at Aldridge Sawmill and Township (41JP82), Jasper
County, Texas, 1995-1996. USDA Forest Service, Lufkin.
Block, W.T.
1994 East Texas Mill Towns and Ghost Towns, Volume I; Angelina, Chambers,
Jefferson, Nacogdoches, Newton, Orange, Polk, and Tyler Counties. Pineywoods
Foundation, Lufkin, Texas.
1995 East Texas Mill Towns and Ghost Towns, Volume II; Hardin, Jasper, Liberty, Montgomery, Sabine, Shelby, and Trinity Counties. Pineywoods Foundation, Lufkin, Texas.
Foscue, E.E.
1960 East Texas: A Timbered Empire. Journal of the Graduate Research
Center 28(1). Southern Methodist University, Dallas.
Gerland, Jonathan
1995 Tapping "Green Gold" An Introduction to the Logging Railroads
of East Texas. Tyrell Historical Library, Beaumont, TX.
Haley, J.L.
1985 Texas: An Album of History. Doubleday & Co. Inc. Garden
City, New York.
Ippolito, John, Velicia Bergstrom, David Jurney, and Elaine
Sherman
1999 An Historic Context for the Early Logging Community in East Texas:
A Planning Document for the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas.
USDA Forest Service National Forests and Grasslands in Texas, Lufkin, Texas.
Kersh, Pam
1993 Aldridge Interpretive and Restoration Plan. Stephen F. Austin
State University, Forestry Department, Nacogdoches, Texas.
Martin, William A., Timothy K. Perttula, Nancy A. Kenmotsu,
Linda Roark, Jamie Wise, James E. Bruseth, John Ippolito, Velicia Hubbard,
and Walter Kingsborough
1995 Cultural Resource Management Planning for the National Forests and
Grasslands in Texas. Department of Antiquities Protection Cultural Resource
Management Report 6, Texas Historic Commission, Austin, TX.
Maxwell, Robert S.
1963 Whistle in the Piney Woods: Paul Bremond and the Houston East and
West Texas Railway. Texas Gulf Coast Historical Association, Publication
Series Vol. VII No.2. Houston, TX.
Maxwell, R.S. and R.D. Baker
1983 Sawdust Empire: The Texas Lumber Industry, 1830-1940. Texas
A&M University Press, College Station, TX.
Nixon, Elray S. and Bruce Lyndon Cunningham
1985 Trees, Shrubs, & Woody Vines of East Texas. Bruce Lyndon
Cunningham Productions,
Nacogdoches, TX.
Pool, William C., Edward Triggs, and Lance Wren
1975 A Historical Atlas of Texas. The Encino Press, Austin, TX.
Sitton, Thad
1995 Backwoodsmen: Stockmen and Hunters Along a Big Thicket River Valley.
University of
Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Sitton, Thad, and J. H. Conrad
1998 Nameless Towns: Texas Sawmill Communities, 1880-1942. University
of Texas Press,
Austin, TX.
Skiles, Bob
1992 Preliminary Background Historical Research on the Old Aldridge Mill
and Town Site (41JP82), Jasper County, Texas. National Forests and Grasslands,
Lufkin, Texas.
Skinner, S. Alan
1979 The Archeology of East Texas Lumbering. East Texas Historical Journal,
Vol. XVII, No.1. Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX.
USDA Forest Service
1996 Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Revised Land
and Resource
Management Plan. National Forests and Grasslands in Texas, Lufkin, TX