Polk County Texas map
30.79° N · 94.84° W · County seat: Livingston · 1,110 sq mi
Lake Livingston fills the whole western side of Polk County. The dam across the Trinity River south of the county line backs up one of the largest reservoirs in Texas, and its shoreline subdivisions are why the county's population keeps rising while most of deep East Texas holds flat. East of Livingston, US-190 runs through the Alabama-Coushatta Reservation, the oldest reservation in the state.
Livingston sits east of the lake where US-59 and US-190 cross. Onalaska is on the lake's northern arm, Corrigan on US-59 in the north, and the reservation lies east of Livingston on US-190.
Where Polk County is
Polk County lies between Houston and the Piney Woods proper, 78 miles northeast of Houston, 49 miles northeast of Conroe and 39 miles south of Lufkin in a straight line. Six counties touch it: Angelina to the north, Tyler east, Hardin southeast, Liberty south, San Jacinto southwest and Trinity northwest.
The county was created in 1846, in the first session of the Texas Legislature after annexation, out of the northern part of Liberty County, and named for James K. Polk, who was president at the time and whose administration had brought Texas into the Union. The Trinity River forms the western boundary, or rather Lake Livingston does, since the river through this stretch is now a reservoir.
Cities and towns
| Place | Type | 2020 population |
|---|---|---|
| Livingston | Town (county seat) | 5,652 |
| Onalaska | City | 3,037 |
| Corrigan | Town | 1,466 |
| Goodrich | City | 249 |
| Seven Oaks | City | 68 |
Fewer than a quarter of the county's 50,123 residents live inside a city limit. The rest are in unincorporated country, much of it lakeside — the shoreline of Lake Livingston is lined with platted subdivisions, weekend places and retirement houses that count as rural on paper. Onalaska, on the lake's upper arm, has grown faster in percentage terms than anywhere else in the county.
Roads
- US-59 – the main route, north from Livingston through Corrigan toward Lufkin, south toward Cleveland and Houston. It is being rebuilt in sections as I-69, and Livingston has a completed bypass.
- US-190 – east–west through Livingston, west across the Lake Livingston bridge toward Huntsville, east through the reservation toward Woodville.
- US-287 – crosses the northern county at Corrigan, northwest toward Groveton and Crockett, southeast toward Woodville and Beaumont.
- SH-146 – ends at Livingston; south it runs to Moss Hill, Liberty and eventually the coast at Texas City.
- FM 350, FM 942 and FM 356 – the lake-shore roads that reach the boat ramps and the subdivisions.
The lake, the reservation and the Big Thicket
Lake Livingston was impounded in the late 1960s by the Trinity River Authority and the city of Houston, chiefly as a water supply for Houston. It is one of the largest reservoirs in Texas by surface area, roughly 40 miles long, and its dam sits at the county's southwestern corner. There is no hydroelectric plant; the lake is a water and recreation project, and striped bass, white bass and catfish bring most of the fishing traffic. Lake Livingston State Park is on the eastern shore southwest of Livingston.
The Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas holds a reservation east of Livingston on US-190, established in 1854 when the state bought land for the Alabama people; the Coushatta joined them soon after. The two peoples came into Texas from the Southeast in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries after being pushed off their homelands, and this is the oldest reservation in the state. The tribe operates a gaming facility on the reservation and manages timber on its land.
South and east of the reservation the country turns into the Big Thicket, the dense mixed forest and bog belt that the National Park Service protects in scattered units; the Big Sandy Creek Unit lies in southeastern Polk County. In a different register, the Allan B. Polunsky Unit west of Livingston has held the men's death row of the Texas prison system since 1999.