Piney Woods

Name of two separate forest regions in the southern USA. Piney Woods in Mississippi describes the wooded area running south from Jackson to the Gulf Coast that was extensively exploited in the mid-19th century for its timber resources, especially the longleaf yellow pine. When the lumber boom had passed, agriculture became the main economic activity. In eastern Texas, Piney Woods (or the ‘Pine Belt’ is a vast forested area taking in 43 counties along the Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma borders. It remains the source of almost all the timber in Texas, but the discovery of oil here in 1930 brought with it considerable industrial growth.