W. Goodrich Jones (1860-1950)

The plaque credits Jones with Arbor Day and a forestry association. His most lasting work was a report. In 1898 the chief of the federal Bureau of Forestry, B. E. Fernow, asked him to survey the Texas forests, and the Handbook calls the result a blueprint for state conservationists. Jones warned that careless logging would exhaust the East Texas pine within twenty-five years and urged planned cutting and replanting, an idea he traced to a boyhood walking tour of Germany's Black Forest. In the 1920s he led a drive for a timber severance tax that failed.

What the plaque says

W. Goodrich Jones (1860-1950) Known as "Father of Forestry in Texas." Came to Temple, 1888, as a banker. Planted first tree (a pecan) in town; this led to establishing Arbor Day in Texas in 1889, through legislation introduced by Sen. Geo. W. Tyler. In 1914 Jones organized Texas Forestry Association, which saw creation of Texas Department of Forestry, signed into law in 1915 by Gov. James E. Ferguson. For 60 years, Jones advocated conservation. A state forest at Conroe and this park bear his name. A fellowship in Forestry Conservation and Research has been established by his family. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 0.7 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.
• Mother Neff State Park — 18 mi
  A Leon River park that grew from six acres Isabella Neff left the state in her 1921 will, where Civilian Conservation Corps Company 817 built a stone tower, a pavilion and roads in the 1930s.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 28 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.

More markers nearby

• Santa Fe Memorial Hospital, Inc. — steps away
• Cora Anderson Negro Hospital — 0.5 mi
• Ralph Wilson, Sr. — 0.5 mi
• First Lutheran Church — 0.7 mi