The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 44, July 1940 - April, 1941 Page: 515

Book Reviews

tallow were utilized. This was followed by the establishment
of cotton and sugar cane plantations, alongside of which there
was a large amount of fur trapping and fishing. Cypress, split
for domestic purposes, started the lumbering industry which
developed to include the forests of pine and oak. Tanning and
shoe manufacturing became so important, it is said, that "most
of the shoes worn in eastern Texas for many years" were pro-
duced in Beaumont. About 1858 rice culture was started and
developed on a "providential" basis. Meanwhile the opening of
roads and the problems of river traffic had engaged the atten-
tion of the community. Until its accomplishment, the bringing
of the sea fifty miles inland to the city was a continuing objec-
tive of Beaumont.
In the '80's the lumber industry "really boomed" and Beau-
mont got additional rail outlets. In all this bustling economic
development, civic and spiritual betterment were not overlooked.
But in the history of Beaumont all of the foregoing devel-
opment is eclipsed by the "Spindletop boom" and the resulting
oil activity and development which followed the discovery well
of 1901. Beaumont remains today a prominent figure nation-
ally in the manufacture, refining, and distillation of crude oil
products.
Withal, Beaumont has remained a city with a personality-
a personality to which many elements and ways of life have
contributed: cattlemen; cotton, sugar cane, and rice farmers;
trappers; rivermen and sailors; roughnecks and oil capitalists;
lumbermen; exporters; and industrialists. This book records in
pleasing style the dramatic elements which tend to give interest
and distinction to the life story of this Texas city.
H. BAILEY CARROLL.
The University of Texas.
Port Arthur. Compiled and written by the Writers' Program
of the Work Projects Administration in the State of
Texas. Sponsored by Hamilton Smith Post No. 797, Inc.,
Veterans of Foreigns Wars of U. S., Port Arthur.
Houston: The Anson Jones Press, 1940. Pp. xvii, 164. Illustra-
tions, maps, index. $1.00.
Whatever else may be said about the Work Projects Adminis-
tration, it should be admitted that the American Guide Series,
of which this volume is one, is a worth while project present-
ing to the public, as it does, many admirable guides to the his-

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