The Best Things to Do in Gilmer, Texas

Gilmer organized the first Yamboree in 1935, after a weevil quarantine that had shut down sweet potato sales in East Texas was lifted and state officials pushed counties to build festivals ahead of the 1936 Texas centennial. It has run every year since, which makes it one of the oldest continuous festivals in the state, and the crowd it draws is routinely reported at around 100,000 people, in a town of a few thousand.

The structure is worth knowing before you go. There are two parades, not one. The school parade puts floats built by Upshur County schools and East Texas marching bands through downtown, and the winning floats roll again in the Queen's Parade, which the 2026 schedule sets for Saturday, October 17 at 11 a.m. around the courthouse square. A carnival takes over the streets around the square, there is a barn dance, a barbecue, a marching contest, and the Queen's Coronation Pageant. The queen is not chosen by judges. High school juniors sell festival tickets through the summer and the biggest seller takes the crown, a tradition the Dallas Morning News profiled at length.

This is the reason people outside Upshur County have heard of Gilmer in months that are not October. The Texas Motorized Trails Coalition, an all volunteer nonprofit, opened Barnwell Mountain in 2000 as its first property, and it still operates on private land rather than as a state or federal park. That matters practically: access is a day fee with a member discount, not a state pass, and the rules are the coalition's own.

The terrain covers 1,850 acres of hills, and the trail network is genuinely large. Published figures vary depending on what is being counted, but the park's own material describes 27 miles of singletrack cut for dirt bikes plus a much larger web of trails rated for UTVs and full size vehicles, and a 16 mile adventure bike route. On site there are restrooms and showers, rental cabins and bunkhouses, and an RV campground, which is why most people come for a weekend rather than an afternoon.

Lake Gilmer opened to the public on September 29, 2001, and the City of Gilmer still manages it. The reservoir covers about 1,010 acres and has been stocked with Florida largemouth bass, black crappie and channel catfish. Public access is a two lane boat ramp with a courtesy dock, sitting on the northeast corner of the bridge four miles west of town off FM 852.

The part most visitors actually use is the park on the other side of the water. Kelsey Creek Sanctuary wraps 1,557 acres of preserved land around the lake, developed for environmental education and low impact recreation, and the day use area at Lake Gilmer Park has a paved accessible loop through the woods, hiking trails, a fishing pier, a swimming area with sand, a volleyball court, playgrounds, swings, and covered picnic and cookout space. For a town this size, it is an unusually complete park.

The building went up starting in June 1925 and served as Gilmer's U.S. Post Office until 1991. Local groups bought it in 1992 and turned it into the county museum, which is a better outcome than most small town federal buildings get. Admission is free and donations are welcome.

The collection is county specific rather than generic Texana. It holds a twentieth century photographic record of the area, material on the industries and agriculture that shaped Upshur County, Native American artifacts, and samples of Gilmer Pottery and Byrd Pottery. The museum also runs rotating exhibits, including a prehistoric Texas exhibit the Tyler Morning Telegraph covered in January 2025.

Gilmer takes its bearings from the Upshur County Courthouse at 100 West Tyler, and the blocks around it still have their red brick paving. The town was founded in 1846 on the site of a former Cherokee village and named for Thomas Walker Gilmer, a Secretary of the Navy. What survives is a genuine county seat square rather than a restored attraction, with boutiques and antique shops mixed in among the businesses that serve people who live here.

The square is also the Yamboree's stage, which is worth knowing if you visit in October and find a carnival where you expected parking. The Gilmer Area Chamber of Commerce hosts the farmers' market on the first and third Thursday of each month.

Steve Dean started this museum at the Gilmer municipal airport in 1994, and it is still a hangar operation rather than a polished visitor center. That is the appeal. The roughly 6,000 square foot hangar holds historic aircraft including a T-37B Tweet, an Aero Commander L-26C, a de Havilland Tiger Moth, and a North American T-6 Texan, the advanced trainer flown from 1938 to 1945.

Admission is free and donations are welcome. The museum's aircraft do not just sit there either. The group flies for patriotic events elsewhere in North Texas around Veterans Day, and the museum arranges flights by prior request rather than as a walk up service.

Josh and Holly Smallwood turned their home and its acreage into a market that opens on a rotating weekend schedule, and it has been covered by KETK and the Longview News Journal since it launched. The draw is the setting: a mansion full of home goods, a general store selling shirts, hats, candles, toys and gifts, and outdoor space for live music and family activity.

The vendor lineup changes between market weekends, with local sellers bringing plants, baked goods and crafts, so two visits do not look the same. Note that online listings show more than one address for the property, and the schedule is by weekend rather than by week, which makes checking before you go more than a formality.