Discover Kilgore

Kilgore offers several perspectives for a stay: oil boom history in Historic Downtown, Shakespeare on stage and in the garden, exhibits about the Rangerettes and broadcasting, and outdoor activity on the Creekside Trail. If you’re looking for a hotel in Kilgore, you can use the purpose of your trip as a starting point: should culture, local history, an event, or time in wooded surroundings be the focus?

Historic Downtown and the Oil History

The Kilgore Cultural District brings together the Historic Downtown area and Kilgore College in a shared cultural setting. In Historic Downtown, the World's Richest Acre Park recalls the city’s oil boom days. The park covers half a city block downtown. The block associated with the park had 24 oil wells, which produced more than 2.5 million barrels of oil over a 30-year period. The combination of half a city block and production quantified over decades gives the subject a concrete scale in both space and time. Oktoberfest takes place every year in Historic Downtown Kilgore.

Theater and Stage Arts

The Texas Shakespeare Festival offers people in East Texas and beyond high-quality theater experiences. The festival includes performances of Shakespearean classics and contemporary works featuring world-class actors. If theater is the reason for your trip, check the current performance dates before planning. That way, you can plan your stay around the actual performances rather than relying solely on the festival’s general theme.

The Rangerettes, Broadcasting, and Shakespeare

The Rangerette Showcase and Museum features a mechanized display of Rangerette props as well as costumes from the spring stage show Rangerette Revels. If you’re interested in stage design, the prop display and costumes offer different points of interest. The Texas Broadcast Museum displays a diverse collection of historical broadcasting memorabilia and equipment. Compared with the Rangerette museum, its focus is on broadcasting rather than stage-related subjects.

The Shakespeare Garden was designed after the original Shakespeare Garden in England. Plants and shrubs referenced in Shakespeare’s plays grow there. Shakespeare is therefore present here through the connection between the garden and the texts—a different approach from the performances at the Texas Shakespeare Festival. Stage and garden explore the same literary theme in different forms.

Outdoor Activity on the Creekside Trail

The Creekside Trail offers more than 3.5 miles of winding paths along Bighead Creek through wooded areas. It is intended for walkers, runners, and cyclists. The trail adds a distinct outdoor activity to your stay; its route alongside the creek and through the woods is quite different from the cultural and historical attractions. When choosing what to focus on, you can weigh stage arts, exhibits, oil history, garden connections, and outdoor activity.

Discover more destinations: Longview, Gladewater

For the broader travel overview: Gregg.