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BIG
THICKET FOUNDER
by Bob Bowman
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If
Silsbee businessman R.E. Jackson had not organized a hunting lease
in 1934, the establishment of today's Big Thicket National Preserve
might not have happened.
While Jackson's role in preserving the unique lands of the Big Thicket
is known and appreciated within the ranks of Texas environmentalists,
his work is not widely known in East Texas history.
Jackson, who passed away in 1957 before the national preserve was
created, was among the Thicket's earliest advocates. In a 1997 lecture
in Beaumont, Pete Gunter, regents professor of philosophy at the University
of North Texas, described Jacksonšs early role.
An undated document from Southwestern Lumber Company of New Jersey
and Kirby Lumber Company of Houston said Jackson's Big Thicket lease
consisted of 15 tracts of land totaling more than 6,000 acres in Hardin
and Polk counties.
While Jackson's lease formed the basis of a hunting club, it was primarily
a conservationist organization that brought together a broad array
of influential people interested in establishing a Big Thicket park
and preserve, including Governor James V. Allred, lumberman John Henry
Kirby, and W.M. Tucker, head of the Texas Game, Fish and Oyster Commission.
In May of 1936, Jackson called a meeting at the Beaumont chamber of
commerce office "for the purpose of organizing in the interests of
the Big Thicket." Jackson was unanimously elected as the president
of the East Texas Big Thicket Association.
By the end of 1936, Jackson and his friends had both an organization
and a land base for showing off the Big Thicket's natural wonders.
But it was only the beginning, according to Gunter. "If the Thicket,
with its riches of woods and swamps, orchids and deer, was famous
in Southeast Texas, and perhaps known in the rest of the state, it
was utterly unknown elsewhere," said Gunter.
One
of the first efforts pushed by Jackson was a scientific study of the
region. While folklore had provided an aura of mystery for the Thicket,
botany, zoology and geography would have to provide the arguments
for its preservation.
As a result of Jackson's work, biologists H.B. Parks and V.L. Cory
produced a 51-page biological survey of the Thicket in 1936 while
staying on Jacksonšs lease. As a result of their work, the Texas Academy
of Science, meeting in Beaumont a year later, passed a resolution
recommending the creation of a Big Thicket preserve.
The meeting's attendees were then carried to Silsbee for a speech
by Governor Allred, a field trip, and generous helpings of a Big Thicket
Mulligan Stew with side dishes of amardillo and baked crow.
Over the years, however, Allred's interest in the Big Thicket declined,
probably because the state had little money to spend on the project.
Other roadblocks also conspired to keep the project on the back burner.
But Jackson's enthusiasm continued until his death. While the work
of later conservationists paid off with the establishment of the Big
Thicket National Preserve -- the first of its kind created in the
United States -- Jackson and his allies provided much of the early
leadership for the preserve, as well as the first scientific analysis
of the Thicket.
Today, as a result of his dedication, the Big Thicket is one of East
Texas' leading natural attractions.
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