The Sawmill Trail Turns a Forest Walk Into Lumber History

The Sawmill Hiking Trail is short enough to sound casual, but it carries a lot of Angelina County story. The route runs about 2.75 miles between Boykin Springs Recreation Area and the Aldridge Sawmill Historic site in the Angelina National Forest.

Parts of the trail follow an old tramway that once worked like a rail line for hauling logs to sawmills. That detail changes the walk. You are moving through pretty woods, but also through a work landscape where pine, rail, water, and mills were tied together. Several spots give views toward the Neches River.

The plant mix helps the trail feel bigger than its mileage. It crosses longleaf pine, bald cypress, loblolly pine-hardwood forest, dogwood, and magnolia. Boy Scouts of America Troop 140, the Forest Service, and Temple-Inland helped build the trail, which is a nice little echo of the county's logging and civic history. The Aldridge end keeps the walk from becoming anonymous scenery, because the destination has a name and a purpose. It is a compact East Texas lesson: lumber history underfoot, river country nearby, and several forest types stitched into one walk.