Post Office Murals - 7 (Jasper, Texas)

A few years ago the Jasper Post Office got a new facility and they were actually allowed to keep their mural.  Many post office murals are retired when a new facility is built and are put in storage.  Instead of being in the lobby as is the case with the older buildings, this one is behind the clerical station so photographing it was a little difficult and the brass plaque which has been added where the postmaster's office door once fit into the bottom of the painting had such a glare from the plate glass window that I couldn't even read what was inscribed on it when I was there.  The title of the mural is "Industries of Jasper."

In the summer of 1938 artist Alexander Levin traveled from his home in Los Angeles to the town of Jasper to view the area and choose the subject for the mural which he had been commissioned to create.  With the help of the postmistress and the citizens of the community he selected the lumber industry and portrayed the era before mechanization of the industry developed which was still being used in that period of time.  There are at least two other post office murals in East Texas which feature logging and/or the lumber industry.

Jasper is located in the midst of the area called the Big Thicket, the most densely forested area in this part of the country.  It has been described as one of the most ecologically biodiverse  areas on the planet outside of the tropics.  The Big Thicket National Preserve and the Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida were the first national preserves set aside by the National Park system.