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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD: July 13, 1999

SALUTE TO THE CITY OF YOAKUM, TEXAS

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HON. RON PAUL
OF TEXAS

[Page: E1524]

Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the City of Yoakum, Texas, which will celebrate its 112th birthday on Wednesday, July 28, 1999, with a festival at the city's Heritage Museum.

Yoakum is located partially in western Lavaca County and partially in eastern DeWitt County. Today, the city is known as the `Leather Capital of the World,' due primarily to the economic impact of 12 leather goods manufacturing firms and some 16 factory locations in Yoakum.

In its early years, Anglo-Americans used Yoakum as a gathering site for thousands of bawling Texas Longhorns that were grouped into cattle drives and driven along the Chisolm Trail to market. Yoakum's townsite was established in 1887 with the arrival of the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad--the railroad of Yoakum's history.

Once, Yoakum was the `Green Wrap' tomato capita of the world and still commemorates this heritage with the annual `Tom Tom Festival.' As that industry faded, the community leaders--namely Mr. C. C. Welhausen--fostered the idea that Yoakum needed another industry as a base to its economy. The result: a leather industry era that now employs some 1,500 and produces millions of dollars of the Yoakum area economy.

Beef production is also huge in Yoakum, and both Lavaca and DeWitt Counties rank in the top five counties in the State of Texas in cow-calf operations. A true cowboy culture exists in the Yoakum area due to the thousands of head of cattle grown on area ranches.

I am proud to represent a city so full of rich, Texas heritage. Mr. Speaker, I hope you will join me sending happy birthday wishes to the City of Yoakum, Texas.

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