Tyler, Texas map
32.35° N · 95.30° W · Smith County · elev. ~550 ft · Central Time
Tyler is the commercial center of East Texas and the seat of Smith County, laid out in 1846 and named for President John Tyler. Its nurseries once grew a large share of the country's rose bushes, and the trade left the city with a 14-acre municipal rose garden — the largest in the United States — and an October rose festival that has run since the 1930s.
Loop 323 rings the built-up city; toll Loop 49 swings wider to the south and west. I-20 crosses about 10 miles north.
Where Tyler is in Texas
Tyler is 100 miles east of Dallas on I-20 and 40 miles west of Longview, in the rolling pine and hardwood country between the Sabine River to the north and the Neches to the south. Gregg County lies east, Cherokee County south toward Jacksonville and Rusk, and Van Zandt County northwest toward Canton.
The Tyler metropolitan area is exactly Smith County — 233,479 people in 2020 — which makes the city the largest between Dallas and Shreveport. Elevation runs around 550 feet, high enough that the sandy hills drain well, which is what made the area good for growing nursery stock in the first place.
Unusually for a Texas city its size, Tyler grew without an interstate through the middle of it. I-20 passes about 10 miles north through Lindale, and the city's traffic is organized instead around two ring roads and the highways that radiate from downtown.
Highways and the two loops
- Loop 323 – the inner ring around the city, about four miles out from the courthouse square.
- Toll Loop 49 – the outer loop, built in stages to the south, west and north, connecting to I-20 at both ends.
- I-20 – 10 miles north via US-69 or Loop 49; west to Dallas, east to Longview and Shreveport.
- US-69 – north to Lindale and Mineola, south to Jacksonville, Rusk and Lufkin.
- US-271 – northeast to Gilmer, Pittsburg and Mount Pleasant, the route toward Texarkana.
- SH-31 – east to Kilgore and Longview, west to Athens and Corsicana.
- SH-155 – southwest past Lake Palestine to Palestine; north toward Big Sandy.
- SH-110 and SH-64 – south to Whitehouse and Troup; west past the airport to Canton.
Roses, azaleas and the fairgrounds
The Tyler Municipal Rose Garden on the west side is the city's signature: about 14 acres of beds and a small rose museum, free to walk, with the adjoining fairgrounds and Harvey Convention Center. The Texas Rose Festival in October crowns a rose queen and fills the garden. In late March the Azalea and Spring Flower Trail runs through the Azalea District south of downtown, a neighborhood of 1920s and 1930s houses on Charnwood, Dobbs and South Broadway built with oil and nursery money.
That oil money came from the East Texas Oil Field, discovered in 1930 southeast of Tyler in Rusk County. It was the largest field found in the continental United States at the time, and while the wells were in the countryside around Kilgore and Henderson, the banks, law firms and pipeline offices that served them landed in Tyler. The city's later growth came from medicine: two large hospital systems and the UT Tyler School of Medicine draw patients from across East Texas.
Areas and neighborhoods
| Area | What's there |
|---|---|
| Downtown square | Smith County courthouse, Liberty Hall, offices and restored storefronts |
| Rose Complex | Municipal rose garden, rose museum, fairgrounds and convention center on West Front Street |
| Azalea District | Historic houses and the spring flower trail south of downtown |
| South Broadway | The main retail corridor, Broadway Square Mall and restaurants inside Loop 323 |
| Medical district | Hospitals and clinics along Beckham Avenue and South Broadway |
| UT Tyler | University campus on the northeast side with Harvey Lake |
| Tyler Junior College | Two-year campus east of downtown off East Fifth Street |
| Pounds Field | Tyler Pounds Regional Airport west of the city on SH-64 |
| Lake Tyler | City-owned lakes about 13 miles southeast on FM 848, with marinas and camps |
The lakes and the state park
Lake Tyler and Lake Tyler East, built by the city on Prairie Creek, are the closest open water and the main boating and fishing lakes. Lake Palestine, much larger, lies southwest on the Neches River along SH-155 and supplies water to the region. North of the city, Tyler State Park sits in tall pines off FM 14 near I-20, with a small spring-fed lake, camping and hiking loops.
Distances from Tyler
| City | Road miles | Route |
|---|---|---|
| Longview | 40 | SH-31 E |
| Lufkin | 85 | US-69 S |
| Nacogdoches | 90 | US-69 S / SH-21 E |
| Dallas | 100 | I-20 W |
| Texarkana | 125 | US-271 N / I-30 E |
| Fort Worth | 135 | I-20 W |
| Houston | 205 | US-69 S / US-59 S |