Logs Have New Home

The Texas Department of Transportation, which operates the state travel information centers, will be getting six logs that were part of the original 1936 tourist bureau in Orange. Orange City Council last week approved an interlocal agreement to donate the logs to be used at the local center on Interstate 10 at the Texas-Louisiana border.

TxDOT spokeswoman Sarah Dupre said the agency does not have a specific plan for the logs at this time.

The state built 13 log cabin tourist bureaus in 1936 for the Texas Centennial celebration that was expected to draws tourists driving to the state from across the country. One of the one-room cabins was set up on the Old Spanish Trail, or U.S. Highway 90.

The Orange log cabin was believed to have been the last one standing though it was demolished three years ago.

Historical photographs show the log cabin was on the highway (now Park Avenue) across from Shangri-La. An Orange Leader newspaper story in 1936 said Port Arthur civic leaders complained the tourist bureau was on the road to Beaumont and would not director visitors to their town.

Dr. Howard Williams in his history book shows the log cabin was moved to Green Avenue, which was part of U.S. 90, and Mill Street. At that time, Simmons Drive had not been built. After World War II, the log cabin was moved to MacArthur Drive.

After Interstate 10 opened circa 1960, the state built a new tourist bureau on the state border. The log cabin was moved to Western Avenue on the Orange side of Adams Bayou. It became a privately-owned liquor store for a number of years.

In 2004, a group of Orange citizens raised money to try to preserve the log cabin. The city allowed it to be moved to the land acquired for a riverfront park off Simmons Drive where the former Riverside housing stood.

Winds from Hurricane Rita and floodwater from Hurricane Ike caused more damage to the old cabin. Finally in 2013, the Orange City Council agreed to demolish to the log cabin because no one had stepped up to save it. The council agreed the city would keep some of the logs.