TEXAS—931 JIILES EAST TEXAS Orange to San Antonio, 329 miles Road Conditions East Texas Is two-thirds paved, remainder gravel. The paved surface will lie Increased during 1928. The 20 ml. between Richmond and East Bernard is to be reconstructed and paved. Travel is detoured by gravel and paved State road northward by Wallis, adding 8 mi. Description of Country East Texas Is one of the richest sections on the Old Spanish Trail. Beaumont and Houston are developing industrial and financial leadership and growing fast. Houston’s ship channel, with Galveston at the entrance, carries exports of 17 railroads. In the Sabine District are the l’orls of Beaumont and Orange, Port Arthur and Port Neelies, serving southeast Texas and contiguous states and themselves harboring big industrial plants and expanding rapidly. Tills Sabine District is one of the big oil producing, refining, manufacturing, distributing and exporting centers of the G. S. Beaumont is also the commercial center of a rich agricultural and lumber region. Farm products of large acreage are sugar cane, figs, corn, cotton, peanuts, rice, satsuma oranges, truch, goats, sheep, cattle and poultry. Texas Is large. Onc-third of the Old Spanish Trail is in Texas. Travelers, seeing so much unsettled country, get mistaken ideas. Texas lias proven its agricultural fertility, yet its vast area is developed only in spots. In South and East Texas these areas offer unusunl opportunities to the liomcseeker and homeseckers arc coming in large numbers. Ilydro-eicctric power lines, oil pipe lines and natural gas lines total tens of thousands of miles and new lines being continually constructed. New hotels along the Old Spanish Trail just built or now building total over 830,000,000 In Texas alone. West of Houston, to Snn Antonio, the rolling hills begin. This country is closely farmed, fertile, prosperous and pretty. The drinking water generally is good. Old History The battlefield of Snn Jacinto is east of Houston. There Gen. Sam Houston nnd his bnnd of Texas patriots destroyed the army of Santa Ana and won Texas freedom from Mexico, April 21, 183C. The first attempt to-disarm the patriots was at Gonzales, now known ns the “Eexington of Texas,” October 2, 1835. Then came the fnll of the Alamo, March G, 183G and the pursuit of Sam Houston’s little army by Santa Ana across Texas to the banks of the San Jacinto River where the rugged Texans swept thru tlie Mexicans nnd won this land for Americans. ORANGE. Deep-water port and municipal docks. Large lumber interests of the Sabine River. Creosoting, pine paper pulp, and iron works. Important oil fields near. NEW IIOLLxVND HOTEL, good. Inf.—Chamber of Commerce. XECHES RIVER. Long bridge and approaches involved many construction problems. •BEAUMONT. Deep-water port and industrial city, center of a dozen oil fields, big refineries, shipyards, steel and tank car and other manufacturing: commercial center of the vast East Texas truck, fruit and farming areas and of the Louisiana-Texas rice growing region, the largest in the world. Living conditions are reflected by the fhet Beaumont shows the lowest death rate of any city in Texas. Beaumont nnd the Sabine district have grown with the automobile; the ears nnd people of a million roads are moving bv the mysterious power generated here. Spindle •top, in sight ot Beaumont's skyscrapers, was the first nnd ™st,f"moms gusher field in America; it produced iiO.OOO,-uoo bbis. and was thought exhausted. Then the Yount-Lee Company in 103!) brought in u fi.OOO 1,1,1. well on lower levels nnd Beaumont lived anew the excitement of the pioneer days Today the Y