Caddo Lake. Photo courtesy of Bob Flanders.

Located deep in the tall piney woods of East Texas, Jefferson offers visitors a completely different climate and atmosphere than any other region of the state. To a daughter of the West Texas desert like myself, it seems to have descended from another country -- the verdant, slow-moving antebellum South versus my flat, wild West. Forests of stately pines block out the horizon, blue waters sparkle and lush vegetation quickly reclaims uncultivated ground. The garden club's first project in 1939 was to plant a dogwood trail and ever since, tourists visit Jefferson to enjoy the blooming of the dogwoods and to inhale the seductive fragrance of magnolia blossoms. Jefferson is also home to two restored authentic plantation properties -- The Freeman Plantation and Twin Oaks -- both offering regular tours.

History buffs eager to get a sense of steamboat travel can make the short drive to Uncertain, Texas, to catch a paddlewheel riverboat tour of Caddo Lake. Turning Basin Riverboat offers a one-hour history and nature tour of Big Cypress Bayou beginning in the "turning basin" where steamboats turned around to head back downriver. Archeology enthusiasts will want to visit the site of the former Caddo Indian village of Sha-Childni-ni on the James Bayou, a tributary of Caddo Lake (on the south side of the bayou, between Jefferson and Vivian, Louisiana). The peace-loving, hospitable Caddo tribe made its home in the lush Cypress Valley for hundreds of years before moving to Oklahoma in the 1830s. The historic village site was discovered in 1997 by a Louisiana Archeology Society team and is attracting the attention of scholars in Native American archeology as well as modern Caddo Indians and tourists.

JEFFERSON'S PAST : : WHERE TO STAY : : DINING/ENTERTAINMENT
OUTDOOR/CADDO LAKE : : NEARBY JEFFERSON : : LINKS/LISTINGS : : INTRODUCTION