Rains County Texas map
32.87° N · 95.80° W · County seat: Emory · 258 sq mi
Rains County is squeezed between two large reservoirs — Lake Tawakoni on the west, Lake Fork on the east — and at 258 square miles it is among the five smallest counties in Texas. Water covers 29 of those square miles, more than one acre in nine, and it is what most people come here for.
Centered on Emory. The lake filling the western edge is Lake Tawakoni; the branching water on the east is Lake Fork Reservoir.
Where Rains County is
The county sits about 60 miles east of Dallas on the line where the Blackland Prairie gives out and the East Texas timber begins. Hopkins County is north, Wood County east, Van Zandt County southwest and Hunt County northwest — only four neighbours, because there is not much perimeter to go round.
Tyler is roughly 46 miles southeast, Garland 49 miles west, Plano 53 miles west and Paris 56 miles northeast. The county is in the 4th congressional district and on Central Time.
The legislature created Rains County in June 1870 out of pieces of Hopkins, Hunt and Wood counties, which is why it is so small and so oddly shaped. Both the county and its seat are named for Emory Rains, a state senator and surveyor who pushed the bill for its creation; Emory took his first name and the county his last.
Cities and towns
| Place | Type | 2020 population |
|---|---|---|
| Emory (county seat) | City | 1,249 |
| East Tawakoni | City | 802 |
| Point | City | 740 |
No town in Rains County reached 1,300 people in 2020; roughly three-quarters of the county's residents live outside any city limits, much of it in lakeside subdivisions.
Roads
- US-69 – the main road, north from Emory to Sulphur Springs and I-30, south toward Mineola and Tyler.
- SH-19 – runs with US-69 through Emory, then heads southwest toward Canton and northwest toward Sulphur Springs.
- SH-276 – the east–west lake road, in from Quinlan and Rockwall past Point and East Tawakoni, through Emory, and on east across an arm of Lake Fork toward Alba.
There is no interstate in the county. I-30 is about 20 miles north through Sulphur Springs and I-20 about 25 miles south through Canton.
Lake Tawakoni
Lake Tawakoni was built on the Sabine River behind Iron Bridge Dam in the 1960s for the Sabine River Authority and Dallas's water supply, and its eastern arms reach into the western third of Rains County. East Tawakoni sits on one of them, a small city that exists because of the lake. The shoreline here is a mix of subdivisions, RV parks and marinas served off SH-276; Lake Tawakoni State Park is on the far side, over the line in Hunt County.
Lake Fork Reservoir
Lake Fork, on Lake Fork Creek in the Sabine basin, occupies the county's eastern edge and reaches well into Wood County. Finished in 1980, it was flooded over standing timber, and those drowned trees are the reason it became the most famous largemouth bass lake in Texas — the state record bass came out of Lake Fork, along with a long list of the heaviest fish ever recorded here. Strict slot limits protect the big fish. Guide services and lakeside lodging around Emory and Alba are a substantial part of the Rains County economy, and the county's small population swells on tournament weekends.