The Texas ‘Big Thicket”

The Texas ‘Big Thicket’

by

Johnny Ammeaux

The Big Thicket lies north and northwest of Beaumont, north to the Old San Antonio Road, commonly referred to as the “El Camino Real” (the Kings Road), from the Sabine River on the east to the Trinity River on the west. It covered about three and a half million acres of land when the first Europeans arrived. By the 1930’s it was reduced to roughly one and a half million acres. Today about 300,000 acres of the thicket remain. It is primarily in the counties of Jasper, Newton, Tyler Polk Liberty, Jefferson and Hardin.

Appropriately called the ‘big woods’ by the Karankawas and Tonkawas Indians, who lived in the area, and the “Big Thicket” by the early Anglo-Americans, because it was considered the densest woodlands found anywhere in the United States.

Because of its vast, dense area, it became a haven for runaways and outlaws, not only of the old west, but in modern times. There they found the seclusion they wanted and needed.

Many of the outlaws migrated to the Thicket from a section of land known as the Neutral Ground, which was between the Sabine and the Arroya Rivers. The Neutral Ground, in which the United States and Spain had no jurisdiction over nit until the United States acquired it in 1821.

Records show that in the early 1830’s, members of the notorious Yocum gang came to Texas after being ran out of Louisiana. Thomas D. Yocum opened a tavern/inn, nestled in a pecan grove on the Atascosita Trail near Pine Island Bayou, between Beaumont and Sour Lake. The only purpose of opening the establishment was tho take advantage of the cattlemen who drove their cattle to market over the Atascosita Trail to New Orleans. Luring them into the tavern, using his attractive step-daughter, Yocum fed them good meals, small talk, fun and gave them a comfortable place to sleep. All for a small price.

They were invited to stop back on their return trip, in which many of them did, this time with their money belts.

People started getting suspicious after some of the cattlemen failed to return home. Although nothing was proven, several stories started floating around about Yocum and his tavern. Many cattlemen thereafter, avoided the place.

One of the stories was a negro girl who lived on a nearby plantation. After one of many encounters with her master, she ran off into the woods. She happen to come upon Yocum and one of his slaves burying some loot they had stolen from one of the guest. Yocum wanted to kill the girl, but after hearing her promise not to speak a word of what she saw, he released her unharmed. Another story was of an organ grinder and his monkey who arrived at the inn one day. After a day of playing and the monkey dancing, the grinder went back to Yocums’ inn for the night. Suspicion aroused when the organ grinders horse was seen days later, grazing in the fields beyond the pecan grove. The townspeople suspected Yocum, but again couldn’t prove anything.