Cities & Towns of the
East Texas Piney Woods Region
Alto
Atlanta
Athens
Big Sandy
Camden
Carthage
Center
Cleveland
Coldspring
Conroe
Crockett
Daingerfield
Gilmer
Gladewater
Grapeland
Hallsville
Hemphill
Henderson
Huntsville
Jacksonville
Jasper
Jefferson
Joinerville
Karnack
Kilgore
Kirbyville
Kountze
Liberty
Livingston
Longview
Lufkin
Lumberton
Marshall
Mineola
Montgomery
Moscow
Mount Pleasant
Nacogdoches
New London
Newton
Palestine
Pittsburg
Quitman
Rusk
San Augustine
Saratoga
Shenandoah
Silsbee
Tatum
Texarkana
The Woodlands
Tyler
Uncertain
Waskom
Weches
Winnsboro
Woodville
Zavalla

Piney Woods of East Texas Region

caddo lake

Regional Highlights

star Texas State Railroad, Palestine
star Rose Gardens, Tyler
star Caddo Lake, Uncertain
star Antiques shopping and historic B&Bs, Jefferson

"There are a lot of jewels here and there," Howard Rosser, former executive director of the East Texas Tourism Association once told us. Those jewels are found all up and down the Texas-Louisiana border in small towns that offer luxurious bed-and-breakfast inns and loads of antiques shopping.

East Texas is an especially popular getaway during the fall. Here you can spend a weekend camping among a cushion of pine needles, enjoying small town festivals that celebrate the changing season, and cruising the countryside to see color displays.

Bordered on the north by Ross Perot's hometown of Texarkana; on the east by Texas's only natural lake, Caddo Lake, East Texas is a land of piney woods, antiques shops, and hallowed century-old neighborhoods.

If you're traveling west from Shreveport, Louisiana to Dallas on I-20, detour to Jefferson, an historic community often called the tourist capital of East Texas. This town lets visitors step back in time to the heyday of river travel. You'll discover that the woods lining the highway drap an antiques shopper's paradise. Marshall, where potters have been mining clay from East Texas's rolling hills for more than a century, turns out more than a million pots each year. In Rusk, ancient steamers of the Texas State Railroad Historic park take visitors on a 19th-century train ride.You may board in either Rusk or Palestine at one of the historic depots then take the memorable ride.

Spring is also a top time to visit East Texas thanks to the incredible rose crop of Tyler and the dogwood in Palestine.

Shopping find plenty of flea market opportunities in Canton during Trade Days or, for those looking for pottery, Marshall never disappoints.