East Texas

When the Sun Sets in Marshall

July 25, 2023 | By TH Staff

Building Community in the East Texas Town of Athens

May 2, 2023 | By Regina L. Burns

In Search of Texas’ Reptilian Riches and Abundant Amphibians

March 28, 2023 | By Asher Elbein

Join the Club for a Delectable Sunday Supper in Van

January 24, 2023 | By June Naylor

The Primordial Paddlefish Is Being Reintroduced to Texas Lakes

June 30, 2022 | By Asher Elbein

Absent Since 2009, Piggly Wiggly Stores Are Reappearing in East Texas

June 13, 2022 | By Paul McDonnold

The excitement rises with the temperature on a sunny June morning in the East Texas town of Athens.

Texas and Louisiana Find Common Ground Along Toledo Bend Reservoir

May 26, 2022 | By Clayton Maxwell

Spring Road Trips : From Kolaches to the Comanche to the Kings Highway

March 8, 2022 | By Joe Nick Patoski

Warm weather has arrived, and so has the urge for adventure. The first of our two-part spring road trips series takes you on three different journeys: a kolache trail that offers two different routes to find the delicious Czech pastry; a drive following the steel arrows that recall the 19th-century era of Comanche Chief Quanah Parker; and an overnight journey following the historic El Camino Real, also known as the King’s Highway.

The Daytripper Kicks it Into High Gear in Kilgore

February 24, 2022 | By Chet Garner

Kilgore is an authentic Piney Woods town boasting the “World’s Richest Acre,” a collection of oil derricks just off Main Street that memorializes the town’s oil industry.

A Mother’s Quest to Give Her Autistic Son an Untethered Childhood

November 24, 2021 | By May Cobb

Hemphill in East Texas Offers Outdoor Adventures in a Close-Knit Community

October 28, 2021 | By Heather Brand

This East Texas Candy Company Has Been Making Peppermints for 75 Years

October 28, 2021 | By Steven Lindsey

East Texas’ Swampy Wetlands Wouldn’t Exist Without Beavers

June 24, 2021 | By Julia Jones

Author May Cobb Just Can’t Quit East Texas

May 18, 2021 | By May Cobb

This is the setting of my childhood in Longview, an East Texas town sandwiched between Marshall and Kilgore on U.S. Highway 80. It holds unimaginable beauty, but also dark secrets that won’t keep speaking to me.

Spring Day Trips Around Austin, Houston and East Texas That Will Make You Want to Hit the Road

March 19, 2021 | By Joe Nick Patoski

Even though COVID-19 restrictions have been eased, and more and more people are able to receive vaccines in the state, there is still a need to play it safe.

My Favorite Texas Trip: From Rome to Cedar Creek

October 19, 2020 | By Amelia Dee Mueller

We All Live in Uncertain Now

July 30, 2020 | By Sarah Hepola

The Texas Purple Hull Pea Festival in Shankleville Honors the Beloved Legume

May 28, 2020 | By David Montgomery

The Enigmatic East

January 30, 2020 | By Emily Roberts Stone, Editor in Chief

Against All Odds, Caddo Lake Prevails

October 30, 2019 | By S.C. Gwynne

The great cypress swamp is lovely, dark, and deep. There is no debating this. The wildly intricate and critter-infested maze of bayous, lakes, ponds, sloughs, and interconnected channels known as Caddo Lake and Big Cypress Bayou is one of the country’s most spectacular nature shows. It contains arguably the most diverse collection of species in Texas. The place has a mystical feel, too, an impression enhanced by the ghostly Spanish moss that drapes the trees, by the cypress roots known as “knees” that rise from the swirling mists like Excalibur in the Arthurian legend, by the lily pads with lotus flowers that spread everywhere and suggest Celtic fairylands.

Fall Weekend Getaway: Post Oak Savannah

October 29, 2019 | By Dan Oko

The southern span of the Post Oak Savannah in East Texas evolved out of ancient woodlands of oak and hickory that once stretched from Canada to Central America.

Seeking Solitude, an East Texas Native Discovers an Island of Indelible Characters

June 24, 2019 | By Wes Ferguson

Hitch a Ride on the Texas State Railroad from Rusk To Palestine

June 13, 2019 | By

Join Amberly, Rich, and Luke as they head to the Piney Woods of East Texas in the June edition of “A Piece of Texas”.

The Texas Basket Company is a Century-Long Link to Jacksonville’s Tomato Capital Heritage

May 29, 2019 | By Matt Joyce

The Jacksonville manufacturer, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, has churned out millions of veneer baskets since it opened in 1919, surviving amid changing times from its home along the railroad that first brought this East Texas town to life.

Gladewater Offers Walkable Shopping and Dining in East Texas’ Antique Capital

July 26, 2018 | By Wes Ferguson

With its old buildings, passing trains, vintage shops, and faded storefronts, Gladewater can seem like a relic from a bygone era. Elvis Presley used to play here. So did Johnny Cash. But in another sense, Gladewater is modern: The recent arrival of a brewpub and the opening six years ago of a bed-and-breakfast have turned the official “Antique Capital of East Texas” into one of the most walkable downtowns around.

With Food, Drink, and History, Nacogdoches Offers More Than Beautiful Spring Azaleas

February 20, 2018 | By Helen Anders

In early spring, Nacogdoches wears its azaleas like a princess wears her jewels: always and everywhere. It’s hard to find a corner of this small East Texas city not bedecked in plump, round blossoms of purple, pink, red, yellow, orange, and white.

But when we talk about Nacogdoches being in full bloom right now, we’re not just talking about flowers. With restaurants, shops, and attractions springing forth, new seeds of cultural vitality are sprouting in the town’s flourishing beds of history.

Unplug in the Pines at High Hill Farm

June 14, 2017 | By June Naylor

With Tyler in my rearview mirror, I’m driving southeast toward the tiny town of Arp on twisting farm-to-market roads, deep in a rolling countryside that unfolds into towering forests and varying shades of green.

Head East

January 12, 2017 | By Phil West

As the craft-beer movement explodes in the Lone Star State, well-made beers are originating beyond Texas’ major cities and long-established small-town breweries.

Pine Curtain of the Past

December 16, 2014 | By Matt Joyce

Looking up into the thick pine canopy of deep East Texas, it’s hard to believe that the pristine forests the pioneers encountered here are long gone.

Texas Top 40 No. 37, Caddo Lake State Park

December 5, 2013 | By

Every Texan should experience the primordial mystery of Caddo Lake State Park. With its ghostly, century-old cypress trees draped with gray-green Spanish moss, cozy cabins built in the 1930s, and a history that encompasses pearl hunting and steamboating, a Caddo getaway works efficiently to re-set your perspective.

Texas to-do’s

December 29, 2012 | By Helen Bryant

Sometimes you can spy a whooper or two in the marsh through a free telescope on the refuge’s observation tower.

Roads to Freedom

June 16, 2011 | By LaDawn Fletcher

Before I met Cedric Fletcher, the man who would become my husband, I had never heard of the East Texas town of Grapeland.

We are Marshall

January 17, 2010 | By Anthony Head

The world’s problems are solved daily at Prospero’s Books in Marshall. At least that’s what Damon Falke tells me one morning as I peruse the new and used volumes on a recent visit to this appealing literary refuge tucked into a bright storefront in Marshall’s historic downtown.

The October 2023 issue of Texas Highways "Tastes Like Home"

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