If you go looking online for what's worth doing in East Texas, you'll find the same dozen attractions recycled across a hundred identical listicles — stock photos, no opinions, no idea which barbecue joint is actually worth the drive. The real knowledge lives in people's heads and in Facebook groups, where it scrolls away by the afternoon.
I'm no expert. I've just lived here more than 30 years, and I figured East Texas deserved one good place that knows it — built by the people who live here, me included. Consider this the porch. Pull up a chair.
What this is
East Texan is a guide to the Piney Woods — the towns, the lakes, the food, the back roads, and the history — written by people who actually live here. Over time it'll grow into a few things at once:
- a guide you can trust, town by town;
- a place to read stories and dispatches from the region;
- eventually, events and a directory of local businesses worth knowing about.
How it'll grow
Slowly, honestly, and from the inside out. No ad spend, no content farm, no AI filler pretending to be local. Just one town at a time, starting close to home.
If you want to follow along, drop your email — that's the best way to know when the next piece goes up. And if you know this place better than I do, good. I'm counting on it.