Atlanta State Park

Atlanta State Park sits on the shore of Wright Patman Lake, a 33,750-acre reservoir on the Sulphur River. Texas Parks and Wildlife says people first lived along the river more than 12,000 years ago, nomadic hunters and gatherers for most of that time. Between about 2,000 and 1,200 years ago the ancestors of the Caddo settled here, farming and making fine ceramics and stone tools, and they became the dominant culture in the region.

Anglo settlers arrived after the 1830s and farmed cotton, corn and hogs into the early 20th century. Old wagon roads, called traces, survive in the park, including the Bobo Ferry trace. From 1948 to 1953 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oversaw the dam that created the lake, first called Lake Texarkana. Texas leased the shoreline from the Army in 1954 to make the park, and in the 1970s the lake was renamed for East Texas congressman Wright Patman.

The park is at 927 Park Road 42 in Atlanta. It has 4.8 miles of hiking trails, including a 0.8-mile nature trail, and 58 campsites with water and electricity, 14 of them also with sewer hookups. Adults pay $3, and the park is open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Summer is the busy season, so reserve a campsite ahead.