Hooks, TX

Hooks is a Bowie County city on U.S. 82 and the Texas Northeastern Railroad, about 13 miles west of Texarkana. The 2020 census counted 2,518 residents. Hooks Independent School District, city water and sewer, local stores, churches, and municipal services keep the town's daily business close to home, while Texarkana supplies the larger retail, medical, and employment options. The road network also puts residents within reach of Red River Army Depot and other industrial sites south of town.

The community grew around Warren Hooks's plantation in the late 1830s; rail service arrived in 1876 and the post office followed in 1884. By 1890, Hooks had churches, a school, sawmills, a hotel, and a few hundred residents. World War II brought the Red River Army Depot and Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant nearby, changing the local job base and pushing the population upward. Hooks still has that mix of school-town routines, highway traffic, defense work, and older rail lines that makes an eastern Bowie County town feel tied to both Texarkana and its own street grid.