The Best Things to Do in Sulphur Springs, TX

The square used to be a parking lot. The city turned it into a park in front of the sandstone and granite courthouse, and it now carries a splash pad, a lighted interactive fountain built in the shape of a Texas star, oversized chess and checker boards, game tables and a 50 foot flagpole. The city says it hosts more than 300 events and public activities here a year.

The reason people detour off Interstate 30 is the restrooms. Unveiled in 2012 at a cost of about $54,000, they are two mirrored boxes built from one way glass, so you can see the whole plaza from inside while nobody outside sees anything. Texas Monthly and KERA both covered them, they were a finalist in the Cintas America's Best Restroom contest, and the city runs security cameras on the square. The Hopkins County Veterans Memorial is on the same plaza, with a computerized kiosk that looks up individual names and service records.

Hopkins County was one of the biggest dairy counties in Texas, and this is the museum that explains why. It is a 10,000 square foot building shaped like a dairy barn, with a five story silo that holds a conference room, and the exhibits walk milk production and processing from the early twentieth century to now. It is supported by dairy farmers across six states, and admission is free.

The part nobody mentions until you are inside is The Creamery, an old-fashioned soda fountain at the end of the tour. Bring cash for a scoop. Note that a few listing sites put the address at 1200 Houston St, which is the civic center next door.

Cooper Lake State Park has two units on opposite shores. South Sulphur is the one on this side, and it is the bigger of the two. Texas Parks and Wildlife lists 14 lakeside cabins with kitchens and bathrooms, four limited use cabins, 17 screened shelters, 87 water and electric sites, 15 walk-in tent sites and 15 electric equestrian sites, plus two lighted fishing piers, two boat ramps, an amphitheater and a sand volleyball court.

Heron Harbor is the day use area with the swimming beach and the large playground, which is where you go if you are not camping. The Buggy Whip Equestrian Trail runs 10.5 miles through roughly 600 acres of woods and creek gulches. The other unit, Doctors Creek, is at 95 Park Road 8154 in Cooper, reachable at (903) 395-3100.

The Hopkins County Historical Society moved eleven historic buildings onto eleven acres and restored them, so instead of reading placards you walk through a working blacksmith shop, a grist mill, a country store and post office, a print shop, a chapel, log houses and the first brick home built in the county. KETR, the public radio station at Texas A&M Commerce, covered the park in 2017.

The museum building holds folk art, Civil War era material, Caddo artifacts and fossils including one nearly complete skeleton. Two things to know before you drive over. The site says it takes cash only at the gate, and published admission and hours conflict across sources, with some listing free entry and others listing a few dollars per person. Call first.

About 186 acres, free parking, no entry fee, and the best walk in town. The city describes the main loop as a 2.5 mile concrete trail that circles the lake, passes two waterfalls, crosses three bridges, runs through a tunnel and ends up at the ball fields. There is also a one third mile nature trail if you want something shorter.

The rest of it is a working sports complex, with seven soccer fields, three baseball fields, three softball fields, two tennis courts, a fishing pier, a playground, picnic areas with charcoal grills and two concession stands. There is a disc golf course here too, listed in both the UDisc and PDGA course directories.

27,000 surface acres and the most famous bass water in the state. Barry St. Clair's 18.18 pound largemouth, caught here in 1992, is still the Texas record, and the large majority of the state's top fifty largemouth have come out of this lake. Texas Parks and Wildlife credits the combination of restrictive harvest rules, Florida strain stocking and heavy standing timber for it.

It is not only a bass lake. Crappie, catfish and bluegill all fish well. Peak largemouth season runs mid February through April, and night fishing is the productive answer in high summer when the daytime bite shuts down.

Most small town markets are done by noon. This one grew out of the old Main Street farmers market and moved to Saturday evening on the plaza, which changes what it is. You get local produce, crafts and prepared food, but you also get live music, the splash pad running, and most of the downtown restaurants open at the same time.

It runs a seasonal calendar rather than year round, and the closing date moves. The city and the market's own Facebook page are the two places that carry the current schedule.

Community Players, Inc. has been producing here for roughly three decades according to its business record, and it renovated the theatre and redecorated the lobby in 2022. The programming is live theatre plus live music, and the season is posted on its own site rather than on a ticketing aggregator.

It is a genuine community company. There is no cost to be in a production beyond nominal workshop fees, and it puts out open casting calls, which is worth knowing if you are moving to town rather than passing through.

The farm is 35 acres in northeast Texas with about 2.5 acres planted in grapes, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Sangiovese, Magnolia and Noble. The last two are muscadine varieties, which is the honest answer to what actually grows in this part of the state.

The Main Street room does tastings, glasses, bottles to take home and food trays. It also lets you order from the restaurants around the square and eat it at the table, which makes it the easiest dinner plan downtown on a night when the market is running.

The old city park, wooded and close enough to the square to walk if you have the legs for it. Kids Kingdom is the reason to come, a castle playground covering about an acre that has been there since 1997 and still gets used hard.

Around it are lighted baseball fields, walking and jogging trails, gazebos, a pavilion, a skate park, a basketball court, and Peavine Pinion pond with a lighted boardwalk around it. The Dairy Festival parade leaves from here in June.