Timber, Cotton, and Oil Shaped Upshur County's Economy

By the Civil War era, ten to twelve water-powered lumber mills operated in the county. A lumber boom in the early 1900s (roughly 1907 to 1917) cleared most of the remaining virgin pine forest. Cotton also expanded rapidly — the county harvested 71,000 acres of cotton by 1920 before soil depletion and the Depression cut output sharply.

Oil was discovered in 1931. Production peaked at more than 12.3 million barrels in 1938 and provided economic relief during the Depression years. Today the county remains part of the East Texas oil and gas producing region overseen by Railroad Commission District 6.