Hughes Springs, TX

Hughes Springs began around a mineral spring and the land of Reece Hughes, who founded the town in 1847. By the 1880s it had an express and telegraph office, steam gin, saw and grist mills, schools, stores, and cotton and lumber shipments moving by rail. The springs also drew camp meetings, a boarding school, and a hotel with mineral baths. That mix of water, commerce, education, and timber-and-cotton work gave the Cass County town its early shape.

The present city extends into Morris County and is served by Hughes Springs ISD, with the high school’s Mustangs a visible local institution. Spring Park carries the history of the original springs, while downtown has eateries, shops, and a Veterans Memorial Wall. Those older stories remain visible in Spring Park and downtown, where residents encounter them in ordinary routines across the year. Hughes Springs is a Piney Woods town where a mineral spring still sits beneath layers of school life, local business, and regional history.