Lufkin, Texas map
31.34° N · 94.73° W · Angelina County seat · Piney Woods · Central Time
Lufkin is a timber town. It began in 1882 as a stop on the Houston, East and West Texas Railway, was named for Abraham P. Lufkin of Galveston, and grew on sawmills, a paper mill at Diboll and a foundry that built oilfield pumping units. Pine forest surrounds it on every side, and the Angelina National Forest and Sam Rayburn Reservoir start about 20 miles east.
Centered downtown, inside Loop 287. US-59 runs northeast toward Nacogdoches and southwest toward Diboll and Houston.
Where Lufkin is in Texas
Lufkin sits between the Neches River, which forms the western boundary of Angelina County, and the Angelina River, which forms the eastern. That makes the county an island of high ground between two river bottoms, and it explains why almost every road out of town crosses a long bridge within 20 miles. Nacogdoches is 20 miles north on US-59, Houston 120 miles southwest on the same road, and Beaumont 90 miles south on US-69.
Angelina County covers 865 square miles, 67 of them water — a high share for an inland county, because Sam Rayburn Reservoir backs up into its southeast corner. Neighboring counties are Nacogdoches to the north, San Augustine northeast, Jasper southeast, Tyler south, Polk southwest, and Trinity, Houston and Cherokee to the west and northwest.
Forest and water
The Angelina National Forest wraps around Sam Rayburn Reservoir east and south of the city, with campgrounds and boat ramps on both shores; SH-103 east and SH-147 south are the usual ways in. Sam Rayburn is the largest reservoir lying entirely inside Texas, impounded on the Angelina River, and it is the reason Lufkin fills with boat trailers on summer weekends. The Davy Crockett National Forest lies west across the Neches.
The timber industry left three things worth finding on a map: the Texas Forestry Museum on Atkinson Drive, the Ellen Trout Zoo on the north side off Loop 287, and the mills at Diboll, 10 miles south on US-59, where the History Center keeps the archives of the East Texas lumber companies.
Highways
- US-59 / I-69 – northeast to Nacogdoches and Carthage; southwest to Diboll, Livingston and Houston.
- US-69 – north to Rusk, Jacksonville and Tyler; south to Zavalla, Woodville and Beaumont.
- SH-103 – east to the Angelina National Forest and Jasper; west toward Crockett.
- SH-94 – northwest to Groveton and Trinity.
- SH-147 – southeast from Zavalla across Sam Rayburn Reservoir on the long causeway toward San Augustine.
- Loop 287 – the ring road around Lufkin; almost all through traffic uses it.
Getting around
Loop 287 is the key to the street plan. It is a complete ring about four miles out from the courthouse, and US-59, US-69, SH-94 and SH-103 all meet it rather than crossing the middle of town, so the fastest way between two points in Lufkin is often around rather than through. Inside the loop, Timberland Drive is the old US-59 alignment and First Street runs into downtown from the south.
Lufkin is the retail and medical center for a wide rural area: people drive in from Trinity, San Augustine, Tyler County and Polk County for hospitals and shopping, which is why a city of 34,000 supports the traffic it does. The Angelina County Airport is west of the city off SH-94.
Areas and nearby towns
| Area | What's there |
|---|---|
| Downtown | Angelina County courthouse, the Pines Theater, Charlton Street shops |
| Timberland Drive | The Business US-59 strip; hospitals, older retail, the Museum of East Texas nearby |
| Loop 287 north | Ellen Trout Zoo, Ellen Trout Lake, the mall and chain retail |
| South Lufkin | Angelina College, the airport road and the industrial plants toward Diboll |
| Hudson | Incorporated town on the west side along SH-94, with its own school district |
| Huntington | Town about 10 miles east on SH-103, on the way to the national forest |
| Diboll | Mill town 10 miles south on US-59; the History Center and the Temple archives |
| Zavalla | Small town 18 miles southeast on US-69, the gateway to Sam Rayburn's west shore |
Distances from Lufkin
| City | Road miles | Route |
|---|---|---|
| Nacogdoches | 20 | US-59 N |
| Conroe | 85 | US-59 S |
| Beaumont | 90 | US-69 S |
| Tyler | 90 | US-69 N |
| Longview | 90 | US-59 N / US-259 N |
| College Station | 110 | SH-7 W / SH-21 W |
| Houston | 120 | US-59 S |
Angelina and Nacogdoches counties are counted as one labor market locally, and the two county seats are close enough that many people work in one and live in the other.