Wood County Texas map
32.78° N · 95.38° W · County seat: Quitman · 695 sq mi
Fifty of Wood County's 695 square miles are water, and one lake accounts for most of it. Lake Fork Reservoir, on the county's northwestern side, has produced more of the biggest largemouth bass ever weighed in Texas than any other water in the state, and the tackle shops, guide services and lake houses around Yantis and Alba exist because of it.
Quitman is in the centre on SH-37 and SH-154; Mineola sits southwest on US-69 and US-80, Winnsboro at the northern edge. The large water body northwest of Quitman is Lake Fork.
Where Wood County is
Wood County is in northeast Texas at the western edge of the pine belt, 30 miles north of Tyler and 42 miles northwest of Longview in a straight line. Seven counties adjoin it: Hopkins to the north, Franklin and Camp northeast, Upshur east, Smith south, Van Zandt southwest and Rains west.
The legislature carved the county out of Van Zandt County in 1850 and named it for George Tyler Wood, the second governor of Texas, who had just left office. The Sabine River crosses the southern half of the county on its way east, and Lake Fork Creek — the stream behind the reservoir — comes down from Hopkins County to join it.
The Dallas–Fort Worth suburbs stop well short of here: Mesquite is 71 miles west and Plano 78 miles northwest, close enough for weekend lake traffic and far enough that the county is not commuter country.
Cities and towns
| Place | Type | 2020 population |
|---|---|---|
| Mineola | City | 4,829 |
| Winnsboro (part) | City | 2,682 |
| Quitman | City (county seat) | 1,944 |
| Hawkins | City | 1,266 |
| Alba (part) | Town | 472 |
| Yantis | Town | 407 |
Mineola is more than twice the size of the county seat. It grew in the 1870s where two railroads crossed, and freight trains still run through the middle of it; the restored depot is a stop on Amtrak's Texas Eagle, one of the few in East Texas. Winnsboro straddles the line into Franklin County and Alba into Rains County, so the figures above count only the Wood County share. Hawkins, in the southeast, sits in the oil country that runs on into Gregg County. Quitman keeps the courthouse, the Governor Hogg Shrine — a small historic site tied to James Stephen Hogg, the first native-born governor of Texas, who worked in the town before entering state politics — and not much else.
Roads
- US-80 – the east–west route through Mineola, west to Grand Saline and Wills Point, east to Big Sandy and Longview.
- US-69 – north–south through Mineola and Alba, south to Tyler, north toward Emory and Greenville.
- SH-37 – Quitman's north road, running up to Mount Vernon and I-30.
- SH-154 – the east–west county road through Quitman, crossing Lake Fork on a causeway west of town and continuing east toward Gilmer.
- SH-11 – the northern route through Winnsboro, west to Sulphur Springs and east toward Pittsburg.
- SH-182 – a short state route inside the county.
No interstate crosses Wood County. I-20 runs about 20 miles to the south and I-30 about 20 miles to the north.
Lake Fork and the county lakes
Lake Fork Reservoir was impounded in 1980 by the Sabine River Authority on Lake Fork Creek, and it spreads across parts of Wood, Rains and Hopkins counties. Much of the timber was left standing when the lake filled, which gave bass cover from the first season and made boat navigation a matter of following marked lanes. Stocked with Florida-strain largemouth and managed with a slot limit, the lake produced the current Texas state-record largemouth bass — 18.18 pounds, caught in January 1992 — and a long list of the state's other top fish. SH-154 crosses it west of Quitman, and the launch ramps cluster around Yantis and Alba.
The county runs three smaller lakes as parks: Lake Holbrook northwest of Mineola, Lake Quitman north of the county seat, and Lake Hawkins in the southeast, each with camping and ramps and none of Lake Fork's crowds. Lake Winnsboro sits at the north end. Together with the Sabine bottomlands they are the reason a county with fewer than 45,000 residents supports as many boat trailers as it does.
Away from the water the county's work is cattle, hay, poultry and timber, plus the old oil production around Hawkins. The Mineola Nature Preserve on the Sabine River, several thousand acres of city-owned bottomland with trails and a bird tower, is open to the public on the southwest side of town.