Edom

Edom is better known now for its potters than for its moves. The Handbook of Texas says artisans in pottery, silver jewelry, glassware, macrame and leather settled here in the 1960s and started an annual arts and crafts fair in 1972. The post office closed in 1976, and no railroad ever reached the town. Earlier, Edom was a stopover on the Porter's Bluff and Tyler Road, which brought lumberjacks, freighters and traders to its saloons. The school opened in 1866 and consolidated with Van in 1966, the year Edom incorporated.

What the plaque says

Edom According to available records the town of Edom has occupied three different locations and is the third oldest town in Van Zandt County. James Coltharp and A. C. Beall settled six miles east of here in 1849, built a sawmill, and named the town Hamburg. A stagecoach station and post office were established. The town shifted 6 miles west to a crossroads and was called Newburg. In the 1850s the town moved to its present location and became Edom. A church was organized in 1857, and a new post office opened in 1858. Edom was incorporated in 1966. (1997)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center — 14 mi
  A Texas Parks and Wildlife hatchery and visitor center in Athens where visitors can borrow tackle and fish a stocked pond, watch native species in gallery tanks and ride a tram around the hatchery.
• Tyler Rose Garden and Rose Museum — 17 mi
  More than 38,000 rose bushes of about 600 cultivars in a free city garden, beside a museum of the Texas Rose Festival, which began in 1933, and of the rose industry.
• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 18 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 20 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.

More markers nearby

• Brownsboro Norwegian Lutheran Cemetery — 4.8 mi
• Site of Old Normandy — 4.8 mi
• Cherokee Chief Bowles — 6.4 mi
• Old Rock Hill Cemetery — 6.5 mi