Paris, Texas map
33.66° N · 95.56° W · Lamar County seat · elev. ~600 ft · Central Time
Paris is the seat of Lamar County in the far northeast corner of the state, about fifteen miles south of the Red River and the Oklahoma line. It keeps a sixty-foot steel replica of the Eiffel Tower on the south side of town, and since the 1990s the tower has worn a red cowboy hat — added after Paris, Tennessee built a taller one and the town decided to answer in a way that could not be copied.
Centered on the Paris plaza. Loop 286 rings the city; US-82 runs east–west and US-271 north–south.
Where Paris is in Texas
Paris sits in the Blackland Prairie of Northeast Texas, on the divide between the Red River to the north and the Sulphur River to the south. It is 60 miles east of Sherman on US-82, 75 miles west of Texarkana on the same road, and about 105 miles northeast of Dallas. No interstate reaches the town: I-30 passes 40 miles to the south through Sulphur Springs and Mount Pleasant, and US-271 and SH-19 are the roads down to it.
Lamar County covers 933 square miles and had 50,088 people in 2020, half of them in Paris. The Congress of the Republic of Texas created it in December 1840 and it was organized the following year, named for Mirabeau B. Lamar. Red River County is east, Delta County south and Fannin County west; across the river to the north are Choctaw and Bryan counties, Oklahoma.
The plaza, the fire and the tower
A fire in March 1916 burned out most of the business district, and what stands downtown now was built in the years right after it. The center of the rebuilt town is the plaza, with the Culbertson Fountain in the middle of it and the Lamar County courthouse a block away — a compact early-twentieth-century core that has survived largely intact because the town never grew enough to knock it down.
The Eiffel Tower replica stands near the civic center off South Collegiate Drive, built by local boilermakers in 1993. In Evergreen Cemetery on the east side, the Willet Babcock monument carries a figure of Jesus leaning on a cross and wearing cowboy boots, which is the other thing visitors are usually sent to see. Paris Junior College, founded early in the twentieth century, is on the south side of town and includes a well-known horology program.
Water and country around the town
Pat Mayse Lake lies about twelve miles north of Paris on Sanders Creek, a Corps of Engineers reservoir reached from US-271, with boat ramps and campgrounds on both shores; the older and much smaller Lake Crook is just northwest of the city. North of the lake the land drops into the Red River bottom, and the crossing into Oklahoma on US-271 leads to Hugo. South and east of Paris the prairie gives way to the sandy timber country of the Piney Woods, which is why Red River County and the land toward Longview looks entirely different from the open farmland west of town.
Highways
- US-82 – west through Honey Grove and Bonham to Sherman; east through Clarksville to Texarkana.
- US-271 – north across the Red River to Hugo, Oklahoma; south to Mount Pleasant, I-30 and on to Gilmer and Longview.
- SH-19 – south to Sulphur Springs and I-30.
- SH-24 – southwest to Cooper and Commerce.
- Loop 286 – the full ring road around Paris, carrying the through traffic of US-82 and US-271.
- FM-79 / FM-195 – north to Pat Mayse Lake and the Red River bottom.
Districts and towns in Lamar County
| Place | What's there |
|---|---|
| The plaza | Culbertson Fountain, post-1916 downtown blocks, Lamar County courthouse |
| South Collegiate | Eiffel Tower replica, civic center, Paris Junior College |
| Evergreen Cemetery | East side; the Babcock monument and 19th-century graves |
| Reno | City of about 3,500 on the west edge of Paris |
| Blossom | Town of about 1,400, 10 miles east on US-82 |
| Roxton | Small town about 15 miles southwest on US-82 |
| Deport | Town on the Lamar–Red River county line southeast of Paris |
| Powderly | Community on US-271 north of the city toward Pat Mayse Lake |
Distances from Paris
| City | Road miles | Route |
|---|---|---|
| Sherman | 60 | US-82 W |
| Texarkana | 75 | US-82 E |
| McKinney | 75 | US-82 W / SH-121 SW |
| Plano | 90 | US-82 W / SH-121 / US-75 S |
| Dallas | 105 | SH-24 SW / I-30 W |
| Longview | 110 | US-271 S |
| Tyler | 120 | US-271 S / SH-155 SW |
Road miles are approximate driving distances on the route named.