Wood County

Wood County is in northeastern Texas between Interstate highways 20 and 30. Quitman, the county seat, is eighty miles east of Dallas and thirty miles north of Tyler. The county's center is at 32°5' north latitude and 95°0' west longitude. Wood County comprises 689 square miles of the East Texas timberlands with an elevation of 250 to 600 feet above sea level. The western and central parts of the county, in the Post Oak Savannah vegetation area, produce post oak and blackjack oak and tall grasses, and the eastern portion, in the Piney Woods vegetation area, has softwoods such as loblolly, shortleaf, longleaf, and slash pine and hardwoods such as oak, hickory, and maple. The Sabine River drains the southern part of Wood County and forms its southern boundary, and a tributary of the river, Lake Fork Creek, drains the central portion of the county. Coffee Creek drains the northwestern part of the county before it empties into Lake Fork Creek. Big Sandy Creek drains eastern Wood County, and one of its tributaries, Indian Creek, drains the northeastern part. The west has level to undulating terrain with sandy surfaces over clayey subsoils. Central Wood County has gently rolling to hilly terrain and reddish soils with loamy surfaces over very deep clayey subsoils. Eastern Wood County is nearly level and has soils with sandy to loamy surfaces over very deep subsoils. Mineral resources include oil, natural gas, sand, gravel, and clays. The climate is subtropical, moist and mild. The average annual temperature is 64° F. Temperatures in January range from an average low of 32° F to an average high of 54° and in July from 71° to 95° F. The average annual precipitation measures forty-three inches, and the growing season averages 246 days a year.

David W. Gilbreath | © Texas State Historical Association