Near Woodville in Tyler County, Texas — The American South (West South Central)

The Yale Summer Forestry Camp and Gifford Pinchot

Photographed by Brian Anderson, September 27, 2025

1. The Yale Summer Forestry Camp and Gifford Pinchot Marker

Inscription. In 1909 at Mooney's Lake, now known as Twin Lakes (2 mi. WSW), Senior students from the Yale University (New Haven, Ct.) School of Forestry met for their annual spring camp to study local timber management and lumber operations. In April that year the camp was visited by Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946), who served as the first Chief Forester of the U. S. from 1895 to 1910.

He was accompanied by members of the newly appointed Yellow Pine Manufacturers Assn. Conservation Committee, including Yale Forest School director Henry Solon Graves (1871-1951), and Texas lumberman John Lewis Thompson (1875-1938). Both Pinchot and Thompson had studied forestry in Europe and advocated the adoption of conservation in American forest lands. Pinchot, whose family founded the Yale Forestry School in 1900, remarked that this committee meeting was the first accord among foresters and lumbermen.

The group proposed that pine manufacturers support federal and state legislation to discourage clear cutting, assure forest fire prevention, and revise taxation of forest lands. Six years later the State of Texas prescribed that forestry courses be

Paid Advertisement

Click or scan to see
this page online

taught at its A & M College, and established a forestry agency, renamed the Texas Forest Service in 1926.

Erected 1986 by Texas Historical Commission. (Marker Number 11465.)

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Education • Horticulture & Forestry. A significant historical year for this entry is 1909.

Location. 30° 44.225′ N, 94° 25.938′ W. Marker is near Woodville, Texas, in Tyler County. It is on Minosa Lane (County Road 1040), on the right when traveling south. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 478 County Road 1040, Woodville TX 75979, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in the American South

and in the Piney Woods.

Globally, it is in North America,

a Gulf of Mexico state,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once New Spain,

the Republic of Texas,

one of the Confederate States of America,

and the Antebellum South.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 3 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Tolar Kitchen (approx. 2½ miles

Photographed by Brian Anderson, September 27, 2025

2. The Yale Summer Forestry Camp and Gifford Pinchot Marker

away); Site of Henry T. Scott School (approx. 2½ miles away); Original Site of Bethel Baptist Church (approx. 2.7 miles away); Home of James Edward Wheat (approx. 2.8 miles away); Tyler County Courthouse (approx. 2.8 miles away); Woodville Academy and Woodville College (approx. 2.8 miles away); Lt. Col. Phillip A. Work (approx. 2.8 miles away); Tyler County (approx. 2.8 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Woodville.

Credits. This page was last revised on October 16, 2025. It was originally submitted on October 16, 2025, by Brian Anderson of New Albany, Ohio. This page has been viewed 59 times since then and 35 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on October 16, 2025, by Brian Anderson of New Albany, Ohio.