PANOLA COUNTY. ' 225 



CHAPTER VII. 



PANOLA COUNTY. 



BY JOSEPH B. WALKER. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The district composed of Panola, Shelby, Nacogdoches, and Rusk counties, 

 lying between north latitude 31° and 32° 30', and west longitude 93° 40' 

 and 95° (examined during the summer of 1890) is mainly between the Sabine 

 River on the northeast and Angelina River on the southwest. The whole 

 three thousand four hundred and ninety square miles is included in what is 

 known as the "Timber Belt" of East Texas. 



The most characteristic feature of the topography of this district is the 

 enormous erosion, which has ploughed out extensive valleys, and left the high 

 hills (buttes) and ridges, locally called "mountains," as imposing witnesses of 

 that potent agency. These hills and ridges, covered with forest trees, when 

 viewed from an elevation do indeed present the appearance of mountain 

 ranges. 



b J 



Fig. 15. 



VIEW FROM BREWER'S MOUNTAIN, NACOGDOCHES COUNTY. 



a, Mount Enterprise, Rusk County, b, Iron Mountain, formerly Elkin's Mountain, Rusk 

 County. 



For a general description of the geography and topography of East Texas, 

 with notes on the literature of the Tertiary formation, the reader is referred to 

 the preliminary report by Dr. R. A. F. Penrose, Jr., in the First Annual Re- 

 port of the Geological Survey of Texas, 1889, and to the introductory chapter 

 of this Report on the Iron Ore Districts of East Texas. 



Panola County has an area of seven hundred and ninety-nine square miles, 

 lying between north latitude 32° and 32° 30' and west longitude 94° and 94° 

 40'. It was created by division from Shelby and Harrison counties in 1846. 



Acreage. — The number of acres is five hundred and eleven thousand three 

 hundred and sixty. The number of acres in field cultivation in 1889-90 

 was sixty-eight thousand two hundred and fifty-six, or 13.34 per cent. 



The number of acres in timber is estimated at three hundred and fifty - 

 seven thousand three hundred and eighteen. 



