Portion of Sawmill Blade

As European colonization of the Big Thicket area in southeast Texas began, timber harvest operations began to spring up. Using methods such as two-wheeled oxcarts, floating log booms down the waterways, and eventually loading harvested logs on railroad cars, many new sawmills supplied with timber as early as the 1830s. Longleaf pine, mixed hardwoods, and eventually the cypress Swamps were all heavily logged and impacted in the ensuing 100 years. With a long growing season and ample precipitation, the forests regrew only to be cut a second and third time.

This portion of a large sawmill blade added to the Big Thicket National Preserve's museum collections represents just one of the tools used to tame the Big Thicket. This sawmill blade collected from the Voth Sawmill Site. Voth Mill was a logging and milling plant established in 1902. It was sold to the Kirby Lumber Company in 1922. A hardwood mill was added in 1924, and then dismantled in 1930. Pine continued to be harvested until the mill was closed in 1952.