Camp Ford Historic Park lies on US 271 north of Tyler, 0.8 miles outside Loop 323, at the site where the Confederacy held Union prisoners from 1863 to 1865. The Smith County Historical Society calls Camp Ford the largest Confederate prisoner of war camp west of the Mississippi River. The park is free and open from dawn to dusk, and it has a kiosk of graphics on the camp's history, a walking trail with interpretive signs and a picnic area.
The Handbook of Texas gives the camp's shape. A stockade of two to four acres went up in November 1863 after reports of an escape plan, and a large spring ran along its south wall. Prisoners built their own shelters of logs and brush, and some dug holes and burrows into hillsides. The Historical Society puts the peak in July 1864 at more than 5,300 prisoners. One of them was Joseph Spiegel, the founder of Spiegel, captured on the Red River on May 3, 1864, and held until the last exchange on May 22, 1865.
The park's address is given as 6500 US Highway 271, and the Society's own page also prints 6600, so confirm the location before you go. The Society's museum at 125 South College Avenue in Tyler is free, with tours Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Events at the park need permission from Smith County.
The closest stops worth working into your route
Roadside plaques and monuments within a short detour