Nacogdoches

City and seat of Nacogdoches County, in eastern Texas, near the Angelina River, 210 km/130 mi north-northeast of Houston; population (2000 est) 29,900. Its name, like that of the settlement of Natchitoches in Louisiana, derives from the original American Indian inhabitants of the region. The city became the cradle of Texan independence from Mexico in the early to mid-19th century. The area produces beef and dairy cattle and poultry, and the city has processing plants. It also makes animal feed, fertilizer, and various other products.

History In 1716, a Spanish mission was built here near a Nacogdoche Indian village. A settlement developed around the mission from 1779 onwards, when a Spanish stronghold called Old Stone Fort was constructed on ‘El Camino Real’, a highway that had existed since 1691. Designated as a pueblo by Mexico in 1779, Nacogdoches is the oldest town in Texas. Stephen F Austin State University (founded 1923) now stands on the site of the original settlement and is the town's major economic function. Americans moved into the area around 1820; it was here that Hayden Edwards declared an independent Texas in 1826; he tried to establish the ‘Republic of Fredonia’, but gained little support and fled in 1827. Nacogdoches published the state's first newspaper, and was active in the 1835–36 Texas Revolution. Nacogdoches University, which operated for a while after 1845, was the first nonsectarian institution in Texas. The Civil War and collapse of the plantation system brought decline, but the city was revitalized as a lumber and manufacturing centre. The state's first oil wells were drilled here in 1859.

Features The nearby Sam Rayburn Reservoir, and Davy Crockett, Angelina, and Sabine national forests all make this area a popular holiday destination. There are 18 entries on the national register of historic places including a post office and university buildings. Nacogdoches was subject to an official state of emergency in 2003 when the town was bombarded by debris following the break-up of the space shuttle, Columbia.