What Can We Learn From the History of the East Texas Lumber Industry? Part 1 of 5.
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In the next few articles, we look at the history of the lumber industry in East Texas. By doing this, we will be reminded of numerous important realities of economics and thus of human civilization.
For context, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the East Texas lumber industry was one of the largest in the United States. Sawmills and lumber yards popped up throughout the region. The abundance of mature pine forests together with the growth of the railway system throughout Texas made East Texas a major center for the production and transportation of lumber. And spoiler alert. Here are a few of the time-tested truths we will see emerge as we take a dive into this rich history:
Natural resources can drive economic growth. But natural resources alone without human and physical infrastructure are basically meaningless. East Texas forests existed long before the region was settled and economically developed.
Natural resource development depends on ever-changing context. One person’s forest full of lumber opportunity is another person’s mere impediment to agriculture. But when the vision of those who want to clear trees to make way for fields unites with those who want to haul away the trees to a sawmill for profit, then, economic development happens.
Natural resource depletion can lead to economic decline. But a decline in one resource, can lead to a rise in another. Change is inevitable, but general decline is not. Extensive logging in East Texas certainly led to depletion of the region’s forests, and at times and in pockets, resulted in a decline of a local economy. But over time, the region also changed, innovated and adapted.
Economic diversification is good. As the lumber economy of East Texas exploded, the region became heavily reliant on the lumber industry. The decline of the industry did have a significant impact on the region before diversification kicked in. Diversification of a region – especially when times are good – is hard work, but it is also an important itigant when the inevitable change kicks in.
Sustainable resource management is good. The overexploitation of timber resources in East Texas led, from time to time, to periods of decline and economic instability. Boom-bust cycles are real in this industry, and in others. So sustainable resource management – thinking ahead – is always important. But there are numerous ways to accomplish this, including price signaling. Regulation is also sometimes a good tool in the box, but it is certainly not the only tool, nor is it even necessarily the best tool.
Just a few introductory bullet points on truths that we will be reminded of as we fly through the history of the East Texas lumber industry.
But we will also be reminded of the vital human element, the pioneering spirit of the people who developed the lumber industry in East Texas. It was hard, uncertain and dangerous work. But pioneers and settlers in Texas were typically hardy people.
Prominent historians of the industry Robert Maxwell and Robert Baker wrote this:
It [the lumber industry] devoured the men, father and son; it ate up the forest; it transformed the countryside into a desert of sawdust dunes; it destroyed the tranquility of rural life; and finally, more often than not, it destroyed itself- by fire. Sawmill work offered long hours, low pay, little chance of advancement, an uncertain future, and, by the law of averages, a good chance of at least one serious injury.
Of course, something similar could be said of New England fishermen,
Appalachian coal miners, Oklahoma roughnecks, and Texas cattle-drive cowboys. Our ancestors were not as comfortable as we are. Their lives resemble The Iliad.
Our lives resemble Much Ado About Nothing and WALL-E. They risked more, and many of them died violently. And we get the benefit of the work they did. These are hard truths.
But yet, we are one race, one species; we are all human and just as in one sense, they undoubtedly lived for us, we recall their lives and fortunes, and do so with curiosity, eagerness to learn and most of all, with gratitude.