Tyler County

Tyler County is in southeastern Texas near the Louisiana border. Woodville, the county seat and largest town, is fifty-six miles north of Beaumont and ninety miles northeast of Houston, very near the center of the county at 30°47' north latitude and 94°25' west longitude. Tyler County is bounded on the north and east by the Neches River. The county comprises 908 square miles of the East Texas timberlands, an area densely forested with pine and a great variety of hardwoods. It contains two units and parts of two more of the twelve units of the Big Thicket National Preserve established by Congress in 1974. The land is gently rolling, with an elevation ranging from 100 to 400 feet above sea level. Northern and eastern Tyler County is drained to the Neches River via Caney, Russell, Billiams, Pamplin, Wolf, Theuvenins, and Rush creeks. The southwestern part of the county contains numerous springs and drains into Horsepen, Hickory, Turkey, and Cypress creeks. The largest body of water in the county is B. A. Steinhagen Lake on the Neches River, impounded in 1951 by Town Bluff Dam (also called Dam B); the lake covers 13,700 acres. Two main soil types are found in Tyler County. In the northern, rolling two-thirds are clayey to sandy marine and continental deposits, and in the level, southern one-third are recent noncalcareous and calcareous clayey flood plain and alluvium. The former, with its loamy or sandy surface layers and clayey or loamy subsoils, supports heavy stands of pine and hardwoods. The latter, more varied soil supports hardwood forest, grasses, crops, and pasturage. Excellent farmland comprises 21 to 30 percent of the land in the county. Mineral resources include clay, industrial sands, oil, and gas. Temperatures range from an average high of 94° F in June to an average low of 38° F in January, rainfall averages forty to fifty inches per year, and the growing season extends for 241 days.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.