Texas Travel – Getting Reacquainted With Home Part VI
East Texas is a vast area of forest and small cities. It is a heavily rural area with only a few larger cities like Tyler in the region. The dense forests add a different kind of beauty that you once again do not see in other regions on Texas. The region has a lot of unique things to do and has a lot of Texas history preserved in museums and historic sites. This area is home to the oldest city in Texas, a historic railroad, remnants of an ancient Native American city, a replica oil boom town, a Civil War Prisoner of War Camp, a rare Texas Casino and so much more. Its an area you can get away from the stresses of big city life and see a different Texas lifestyle. Our journey through East Texas will somewhat be a journey through different eras of Texas history as well as different cities in the region.
Huntsville, TX
There are two cities that we usually use coming from Houston as the gateway to East Texas and that is Huntsville and the next city on our tour named Livingston. Huntsville is one of the larger cities in the East Texas region and not that far from Houston. The city is famous for two things one being Sam Houston and the other is the home to a large prison including death row. There are some great museums in this city like the Sam Houston Memorial Museum that preserves Sam Houston’s final home (the steamboat house). The Texas Prison Museum is also a great museum that goes over the history of the prison and even includes ‘Old Sparky;’ electric chair used by the State of Texas. Beyond that you can visit the 67 foot tall Sam Houston Statue that greets you on I-45. We also like to walk the town square as there are great antique stores and a good breakfast place called “The Doughnut Wheel” we go to. This is a college town but still has a small town feel to it as you walk around. Not far is the huge Sam Houston National Forest.
Livingston, TX
We most recently visited Livingston in early 2021 on a quick trip to just get out of the house briefly. Livingston is the county seat of Polk county and very small. In its quiet county courthouse square you will find a few shops. The main two reasons to visit Livingston is the Livingston State Park to visit its lake and a unique site around 20 minutes East in the woods. The Naskila Casino is a rare Texas Casino. Its located on the small Alabama-Coushatta reservation where you can visit a small museum about their culture. The casino is a nice one that features non smoking areas and only has electronic bingo (slot machines). Its small but a unique place that is creating jobs for an area that has few opportunities. You can also see the tribes beautiful pine needle baskets they are known for. The State of Texas has worked to close the casino down ,but so far it still stands. Livingston was one of the first places we visited where in the restaurant we saw few people including the servers wearing masks. That is mainly due to the regions heavy conservative political slant.
Lufkin, TX
Not too far up I-59 the road you will find another one of the larger cities in East Texas called Lufkin. In Lufkin it feels like a big city in some ways as you drive through the freeways and see all the chain restaurants we normally see back home in Houston. While we briefly visited in 2021 we went to their very nice Ellen Trout Zoo that even has a miniature train that goes through the forest. The zoo had many animals you would expect in a larger city zoo and beautiful peacocks roaming the zoo. The city is also home to some great museums. We visited the East Texas Museum that unfortunately was being renovated as many museums and attractions have been doing during the lull of visitors during the pandemic. We also visited the unique Narajo Museum of Natural History. Its built by a local archeologist that has discovered some big dinosaur finds around the world. In his collection is a dinosaur that has pieces of preserved dinosaur skin on the bone. The collection has dinosaur and mammoth bones and a timeline of the history of Earth including ancient artifacts from human history. Being in East Texas you are still surrounded by forest. In downtown you still get the small city feel as people visit the ma and pa run shops.
Caddo Mounds State Historic Site and Mission Tejas State Park
Not far from Lufkin are two sites that interpret two different eras of Texas history. It has been a few years since we have visited each place but they are worth visiting all the same and remind me of Texas’s long and storied history and how so many different cultures and people shaped the state we live in today. The Caddo Mound State Historic Site protects the remains of a the ancient Caddo who built a city around earthen mounds where temples once stood. They were part of a large network of mound cities that stretched many miles to other states. A lot of trading occurred in the city and they find artifacts from around the country. There is a great visitors center we visited but was destroyed by a tornado that struck the park a few years back. Its a sad reminder of the wild weather we get in Texas and harsh conditions early inhabitants of our state encountered. Not too far deeper in the expansive forest is a state park dedicated to another era in our history. Mission Tejas State Park was built during the Great Depression in the United States by the CCC program that created so many great places like this one and the San Jacinto monument to provide jobs to people who badly needed them. There is a replica of a a Spanish mission that was once along the El Camino Real “The Kings Highway” that ran through East Texas on its way to Mexico. The park has some great trails through the forest and camping opportunities. So close together but far apart in the time in Texas history.
Nacogdoches, TX
As we continue North we find the oldest city in Texas. The small city of Nacogdoches was a Caddo Indian city up until the 1700s when the Spanish created a mission and a small town. Today you can visit the local shops, The Old Stone Fort Museum and visit one of the nice Universities in the Region, Stephen F. Austin University. We have only visited this small city a couple times but its a nice stop as you travel through East Texas.
Palestine and Rusk TX
To the North West of Nacogdoches are two county seats that are connected by a very historic railroad that operates to this day. The Texas State Railroad operates from both the Palestine and Rusk Depots. They operate historic steam and diesel trains and use historic train cars that once again take you back to another era in Texas history in the 1800s. The railroad was and still is important in Texas. While passenger service is few and far between today, freight lines can be found all over Texas to this day. I have ridden the train twice throughout the year. Once with my family during the day and the other for the special Polar Express ride at night during the Christmas season. You ride through the East Texas forest on a little adventure where you see small streams and wildlife as you go. During the Polar express time they serve of course hot chocolate and read the story as you travel to the North Pole. Each city has its own depot that takes you back to the Old West. The cities themselves are great examples of small East Texas cities. They have friendly people and very nice town squares with antique shops and local restaurants. We have an extensive history in visiting Palestine since we have family that live there. We last visited in December of 2020. The Anderson County Courthouse in Palestine is a beautiful example of Texas courthouses that vary in design across the state. In big cities like Houston they are normal office buildings but in smaller cities they have historic court houses that look more like castles than court houses. In this area the past times include heading to the local lakes like Houston County lake (my grandparents used to have a lake house there we visited often) or Lake Palestine to fish and boat, hunting in the ample forests filled with deer and hogs and other outdoor activities like dirt bikes and ATVs. You will find like in many areas of Texas people on their front porch just relaxing and enjoying the outdoors. There are many great local businesses like Agape Chiropractic in Palestine you can visit.
Tyler, TX
The largest city in East Texas is the around 100,000 population City of Tyler. Tyler has all the stores that you would expect in a city like Houston or Dallas. You’ll find Best Buy, Target, AMC movie theaters and so much more. The city is the business center of East Texas. Tyler has the only passenger airport in the East Texas region at Tyler Pounds Field. American Airlines has flight to Dallas from Tyler. The city has the traffic of a large city as well in comparison to driving the rural roads in the smaller cities. There is a lot to do in Tyler including some world class museums. The city is well known for its Roses. You can visit the Rose Gardens while in Tyler. Tyler has another great Zoo called the Caldwell Zoo that at one point was one of the last free zoos around. Now there is a nominal cost now that is well worth the nice zoo. Just South of Tyler in the small city of Bullard is a World class museum called the American Freedom Museum. The museum has artifacts and interactive exhibits from every war the United States has participated in from the American Revolution to current days. The museum has cannons, guns, uniforms and part of a DC-3 that simulates parachuting into Normandy. Another part of the museum has autographs and memorabilia from every single American President. The museum is a testament to the struggles our country has had and the same can be said of Texas as well. Tyler also has a great aviation museum at the old terminal at Tyler Pounds Field that we have visited in the past. Near the edge of Tyler is another historic site from a turbulent time in Texas and US history. Camp Ford in Tyler was a Confederate Prisoner or War camp for Union prisoners. They held prisoners from Western Battlefields along front of the American Civil War. It was a fort with a wooden wall (stockade) that kept the prisoners in. It was the largest camp West of the Mississippi and while overcrowded had better conditions than other Confederate camps. Today they have a recreation of the stockade, a history of the camp, a nice walk with signs pointing out where things where. They have a recreation of an officers prison cabin as well. It once again shows the long history that has its struggles. Our last visit
Kilgore, Texas
The final city on my tour of East Texas also continues on our trip through time in Texas history. As we have gone from Native American, to Spanish and Civil War history. Kilgore is another small town that is home to the Kilgore Junior College. Kilgore in the 1930s became the center of a great East Texas oil boom. There are pictures of hundreds of oil derricks around the town center during the height of the boom. A great little museum called The East Texas Oil Museum is in Kilgore that has exhibits on another changing time in Texas history. The museum has a very nice replica of a 1930s boomtown. A time where you could still see traces of the old west with a general store but the beginnings of modern drug stores and banks. You can see what is would have been like to live in the boomtown in the 1930s and what it would have been like in an East Texas town undergoing great change in a small amount of time.
My Take on East Texas
The Good
While many people think there are not many interesting things to do in East Texas but they are wrong. There are many museums, outdoor activities and historic sites. You could spend a lot of time in the area and find fun and take time to learn. If you are looking for a region to get away from big city life and slow down this is also a great region for you to visit. There is an abundance of outdoor activities and the forest can be beautiful. The area is a camper’s paradise with so many camp grounds, parks, lakes and trails you can explore. The people are generally friendly and welcoming as you visit small towns. You will find at times people will pull over on the side of the road to let faster drivers go by for example (you will not find this in the larger cities). For the most part outside of Palestine and Rusk during the Polar Express Christmas season, prices for hotels and food are cheaper in East Texas than most other regions in the state. There are a lot of Ma and Pa local establishments all around the region so you can truly find some unique and great places to shop and eat at while supporting the local economies. Places like Agape Chiropractic, Little Mexico in Palestine, the Doughnut Wheel in Huntsville and so many others are worth visiting and giving your business. If you are someone who is conservative in your political thoughts this would be a great region for you as its one of the most conservative areas of the state. You will find more resistance to lockdowns, vaccines (I am vaccinated fyi), and more freedom in regards to mask wearing if visiting while the pandemic is still going.
The Bad
While driving through the small cities you will find many have economical issues. There are in some cases abandoned buildings and places that are in disrepair. Traveling throughout Texas this is not necessarily just an issue with rural East Texas but can be found in small towns throughout the state. There can be fewer economic opportunities so some people in general can be lower income (this is not always the case and it is just from my observations). The people in Rural America and East Texas are very hard working but fewer higher paying jobs like you find in big cities can hurt the economy in the area. This goes to the infrastructure as some cities roads can have issues but this is common throughout Texas as well. If you are looking for big city life then this region is not where you will want to be as it is heavily rural. East Texas also has a serious drug and drinking issue. Opioids and Meth is something I hear and read about when it comes to this region. You most likely won’t encounter this while traveling but you can run into some interesting people like I did once when someone thought I was University of Houston (UH) star QB Case Keenum just because I was wearing a UH polo shirt. If you are looking for a more progressive culture then East Texas is not the place to be for you as the area is heavily conservative. The conservative culture has definitely effected the areas thoughts on the pandemic as mask wearing in this region was few and far between, vaccination rates lag the rest of the state, and sometimes interesting stories are spread such as one I heard from a small town far East of Livingston that those who get the vaccine are spreaders of Covid-19 and should stay away from everyone (not a scientific fact).
In Conclusion
The East Texas region is a endless forest that is steeped in history. As I did in this post we traveled though thousands of years of Texas history by just traveling though East Texas. There is a lot more to do in East Texas than many people might think and any indoor or outdoor activity that you might want to do. This region is highly rural with the largest city being a little over 100,000 people. This gives you a chance if you live in a big city to get away from the traffic and stress and take a road with fewer people around. The region has its challenges from some economic and drug issues to roads that can be is disrepair in some areas. Go out and explore East Texas and you will not be disappointed in what you will find!