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East Texas

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East Texas Travel Guide

East Texas takes life slower than the more urbanized parts of the state. To be sure, all the traditional Texas touchstones are here: cattle grazing on the prairie, pickup trucks rolling down dirt roads, the smell of barbecue smoking in roadside shacks, and a fanatical devotion to high-school football. The region played a role in the rise of Texas oil, starting with the Spindletop Well near Beaumont, which began gushing in 1901. Other oil discoveries followed, including the legendary East Texas Oil Field near Kilgore, which by the 1930s had made Texas the leading producer of "black gold."

East Texas also has a landscape distinct from the rest of Texas. At one time it was covered with large swaths of forests, which contributed to the region's Piney Woods nickname. Some roads still snake through thick stands of trees across the area's sweeping plains. Swampy areas centered around the Big Thicket National Preserve remind visitors they're not far from Louisiana.

East Texas Top 5

Places to Explore

Beaumont & Port Arthur
Bryan-College Station
Huntsville
Jefferson
Jefferson-Marshall Area
Marshall

Nacogdoches
Shreveport, Louisiana
Texarkana
Texarkana & Shreveport
Tyler

Get Advice From Other Travelers

Are there any wildflowers blooming in North East Texas yet?
4 responses; most recent on 03/16/2007, 05:00 pm

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