Pineywoods Pinnacle: Early logging shaped cultural, social and economic structures for modern east Texas

摘要

Settlers coming into east Texas in the early 1800s encountered vast forests—pines and hardwoods extending for miles in a verdant swath broken only by murky, meandering rivers. Caddo Indians had lived in these woodlands for thousands of years, fellingtrees for their tall, beehive-shaped houses and temples and constructing villages along the Red, Neches and Sabine rivers. But their impact, and that of the Anglo farmers who followed them, was light, and the forests maintained their dominance on the land.