WELCOME to Log Cabin

Begun as a resort community, Log Cabin offers a spacious lakeside city park and a wooded environment. The city park offers lake amenities to residents and visitors in Log Cabin, such as a boat ramp, boat dock, fishing, swimming, sunbathing, playground, outdoor grills and picnic tables,

Known for its fishing tournaments that attract visitors from all around, Log Cabin is located just off State Highway 198 and Ranch to Market Road 3054 between Gun Barrel City and Malakoff and has more than 800 residents. Being on the deepest end of the lake, when lake levels are down, you can count on the city park boat ramp to be able to host your boat launch. In 2022, the dock and ramp area, along with the fishing and swimming pier, was refurbished. The park office has bathrooms and showers for those staying in the park, which includes an RV area.

Those nearly year-round fishing tournaments include the KCKL Big Bass Tournament that draws fishermen from several states away. The tournament, sponsored by a local radio station, started in the mid-1980s. Log Cabin’s history started in 1969, when a company called Areaco Inc. began developing the company’s second resort community. Its first resort was built in Missouri. It found the perfect spot along the shores of Cedar Creek Lake and called it Log Cabin Estates.

The original concept was to build a recreational resort, where people could get away from the city and take their families for vacations and weekend getaways. Some lots were offered for sale and others became contractual memberships. Streets were named for figures from Texas, Native American and Western history.

Log Cabin Estates incorporated Jan.17,1987, and became the City of Log Cabin. The Red Barn is a community gathering place and holds annual events and family gatherings. Log Cabin is a tight-knit community and at Thanksgiving and Christmas they hold a community dinner at the Red Barn where everyone brings food to share in the true spirit of the holidays. Lots of memories are made at the Red Barn.

Learn more about living in Log Cabin by visiting its website, cityoflogcabin.com. Contact Log Cabin City Hall at 903-489-2195 or stop in at 14387 Alamo Rd, Log Cabin, TX, 75148.

By Russell Slaton

Kerens, “The Birthplace of Big Tex,” located along State Highway 31 just 14 miles east of Corsicana in eastern Navarro County, was established in 1881 when the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, also known as the “Cotton Belt Route,” progressed through the county. Its namesake is Richard C. Kerens of St. Louis, a railroad executive.

But that’s not where Kerens’ history started, exactly. The railroad bypassed the nearby settlement of Wadeville, located south of the current town, and soon after, all the businesses from Wadeville moved to the new community.

Kerens (2020 population 1,505) is known far and wide for Big Tex, but the statuesque icon started life as the world’s largest Santa Claus, developed by the local Chamber of Commerce to bring Christmas shoppers to the many businesses in the Kerens community.

Big Tex was built and erected by local citizens and even had its visage modeled on two Kerens residents. The attraction stood in the middle of Colket Avenue, Kerens’ main street, during 1948 and 1949. From there, he warmly welcomed holiday visitors. After two years, however, he was sold to the State Fair of Texas and became the Big Tex that is known and loved across the Lone Star State, as well as worldwide.

Kerens is also known for the annual Cotton Harvest Festival, which takes place the third Saturday in October, drawing folks from near and far to enjoy a plethora of activities on the city’s red brick main street. The festival includes a photography contest, a carnival and quilt raffle, live entertainment, vendors, a chili cook-off, arts and crafts, food booths, children’s games and rides, along with many more activities.

Kerens still has close ties to cotton, but in the past before mechanization, the cotton crop was gathered mostly by manual labor, culminating months of hard work and worry about the crop coming in successfully for area farmers and their employees. The festival harkens back to that time when people kicked up their feet (and heels) in celebration of a successful cotton crop.

Kerens also is known for its spirited homecoming activities, as well as its jewel of a Veterans Memorial that has its praises sung by sightseers. Across the street is a Veterans Military Museum, containing artifacts of the city’s history of serving its country. The downtown main brick thoroughfare also hosts car shows that allow visitors to ogle over America’s engineering ingenuity.