WOODVILLE – The ribbon cutting of the Tyler County Forest Museum was celebrated on Saturday, Jan. 31, at Tyler County Heritage Village in Woodville.
Mike Murphrey, President of the Society of American Foresters (SAF) - Texas, was present to deliver the final installment of the grant SAF awarded the museum.
All exhibits in the Forest Museum represent Tyler County. A replica of The Yale Summer Forestry Camp and Gifford Pinchot historical marker dominates the room. Gifford Pinchot, the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service, was in Tyler County in 1909. While here, he met with students at the Yale Summer Forestry Camp and conducted a meeting with lumbermen from across the nation.
Yale forestry students camped in the woods at the twin lakes off County Road 1050 to study the forest environment. Aldo Leopold, later to become the father of US wildlife management and conservation, was among the students.
Pinchot's meeting with the lumberman created the first-in-the-nation accord between environmentalists and the forest industry. Forestry participating included lumbermen from as far away as Alabama and Missouri, as well as the Thompson brothers of Doucette.
The museum is a culmination of four years of research and exhibit creations by Sarah Reinemeyer, Fred Turner, Jonathan Sterling and Betty Zimmerman.
