April 26, 2022 | By Paul McDonnold
In downtown Grapevine, novelist Jody Hadlock breezes into a busy coffee shop to talk about her new book, The Lives of Diamond Bessie, a historical novel about a murder that took place in East Texas in 1877.
March 27, 2019 | By Paul McDonnold
It was the O.J. Simpson trial of its day. Reporters descended on the northeast Texas town of Jefferson to chronicle the tragic tale of Diamond Bessie with black ink and purple prose. Nobody recognized the dashing young couple Annie Moore and Abe Rothschild when they checked into a local hotel in January 1877. But when Moore’s body was found in the woods two weeks later, a bullet in her head, the mystery of Moore, aka Diamond Bessie, catapulted Jefferson into the national spotlight.
February 28, 2019 | By Michael Corcoran
The heavy left hand mimicked the rumble of steam locomotives on iron rails, while the right played melodic cross-rhythms that whistled up and down the tracks. A national craze during World War II, the hard-driving piano style known as boogie woogie set the stage for the musical revolution of rock ’n’ roll.
October 9, 2017 | By Julie Stratton
If it is a Friday or Saturday night, after dinner, head northwest for a block on Austin Street to the corner of Austin and Vale streets for the Historic Jefferson Ghost Walk.
September 18, 2017 | By Dana Goolsby
With its riverboat heritage and antebellum architecture, Jefferson is a town where history and culture converge like two prongs of a bayou, weaving together through the thick forests of the Texas-Louisiana borderlands.
April 15, 2016 | By
Jefferson may be best known for its rich history as a 19th-Century steamboat river port, but the region’s railroad heritage takes center stage May 14-15 at Jefferson Train Days.
September 16, 2015 | By Barbara Rodriguez
The once-bustling river port of Jefferson has been saluted for many things: the state’s first gas streetlights, one of the state’s first breweries and, my personal favorite, an abundance of ghosts.
April 13, 2015 | By
Started 68 years ago as a tour of historic homes, the Jefferson Pilgrimage has expanded over the years into a weekend of activities harkening to the town’s 19th-Century heyday as a Northeast Texas inland river port.
September 10, 2013 | By Chet Garner
While most associate Texas with the Wild West rather than the Deep South, there are towns in the Lone Star State that exude Southern charm and hospitality. To capture the genteel spirit of the South, I headed to Jefferson in the far reaches of Northeast Texas.
Published monthly by the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Highways, the official travel magazine of Texas, encourages travel to and within the Lone Star State and tells the Texas story to readers around the world.
