Texarkana, Texas map
33.44° N · 94.04° W · Bowie County · on the Texas–Arkansas line · Central Time
Texarkana is one city on paper twice over: Texarkana, Texas and Texarkana, Arkansas are separate municipalities with separate mayors, divided by State Line Avenue. The federal building and post office downtown was deliberately built astride the boundary, so mail can be posted in either state from the same counter, and the two cities together hold roughly 66,000 people.
Centered on downtown. The straight north–south street through the middle of the frame is State Line Avenue; everything east of it is Arkansas.
Where Texarkana is in Texas
The city sits in the far northeast corner of the state, 180 miles east of Dallas on I-30 and about 145 miles southwest of Little Rock on the same road. The Red River runs a few miles north, and beyond it is Oklahoma: Bowie County is one of only three Texas counties that touch two other states, and the Texas–Oklahoma–Arkansas tripoint is at its northwest corner.
Texarkana is much the largest city in Bowie County but it is not the county seat. The courthouse is 25 miles west at New Boston, on US-82 near I-30, a legacy of the county being organized in 1840, more than thirty years before the railroads created Texarkana. The town itself dates from 1873, when the Texas and Pacific building west met the Cairo and Fulton building south from Arkansas.
The state line
State Line Avenue carries US-71 and runs north–south for the length of the built-up area. Businesses on it have addresses in either state depending on which side of the median they occupy, and the practical effects are real: different sales tax, different state police, two school systems, two sets of liquor rules. Union Station, the 1930 depot at the north end of State Line, is also split, and it is served by Amtrak's Texas Eagle. The Perot Theatre, restored in the 1980s, stands on Main Street on the Texas side.
Highways
- I-30 – southwest to Mount Pleasant, Sulphur Springs and Dallas; northeast into Arkansas toward Hope and Little Rock.
- US-59 / I-369 – south to Atlanta, Jefferson, Marshall and eventually Houston; the newer freeway sections around the city carry the I-369 shield.
- US-71 – State Line Avenue, running north into Arkansas.
- US-67 – the older parallel route west through Hooks, New Boston and Maud.
- US-82 – west to Avery, Detroit and Paris; east into Arkansas.
- Loop 151 – southwest from the city toward Wright Patman Lake and Texas A&M University–Texarkana.
Water and country around the city
Wright Patman Lake, a Corps of Engineers reservoir on the Sulphur River, sits southwest of Texarkana and is the closest big water; its dam is about 10 miles from downtown and Corps parks line the north shore off US-59 and Loop 151. Atlanta State Park is on Lake Wright Patman's western arm, roughly 30 miles south near the town of Atlanta. The Red River runs east–west a few miles north of the city, and beyond it the country is Oklahoma bottomland.
Scott Joplin, the composer of ragtime, grew up in Texarkana in the 1870s and 1880s, and the city marks the connection with a mural downtown near the Perot Theatre. The Texarkana Regional Airport is on the Arkansas side, about four miles northeast of the state line.
Areas and nearby towns
| Area | What's there |
|---|---|
| Downtown | The two-state post office and federal building, Perot Theatre, Union Station, Front Street murals |
| State Line Avenue | The dividing street; motels, restaurants and the older commercial strip |
| Texas A&M–Texarkana | South side campus beside Bringle Lake, opened at that site in 2011 |
| Nash and Wake Village | Incorporated suburbs immediately west along US-67 and I-30 |
| Texarkana, Arkansas | Miller County seat, east of the line, with its own downtown and airport |
| Hooks and Leary | Small towns 10–15 miles west on US-82 and I-30 |
| Red River Army Depot | Military vehicle depot about 18 miles west near Hooks, one of the area's largest employers |
| Wright Patman Lake | Corps of Engineers reservoir on the Sulphur River southwest of the city, reached from US-59 and Loop 151 |
Distances from Texarkana
| City | Road miles | Route |
|---|---|---|
| Longview | 75 | US-59 S / US-259 SW |
| Paris | 90 | US-82 W |
| Tyler | 120 | US-59 S / I-20 W |
| Sherman | 155 | US-82 W |
| Dallas | 180 | I-30 W |
| Fort Worth | 215 | I-30 W |
| Houston | 290 | US-59 S |
Arkansas observes the same Central Time as Texas here, so the state line makes no difference to the clock.