Navarro County Between Lakes and History

Navarro County combines fishing opportunities at two lakes with a rural, agriculturally shaped landscape and a history spanning early settlements to oil production. This brings a range of interests together when planning a trip: waterways and parks, nature watching, and traces of the past. Corsicana adds sites connected to the history of the Texas oil industry.

Lakes and Fishing in Navarro County

Richland Chambers Reservoir is located on Richland and Chambers creeks, southeast to east-southeast of Corsicana along U.S. Highway 287. Navarro Mills Lake is north of Texas Highway 31 between Waco and Corsicana. These locations are described in different ways: for Richland Chambers Reservoir, the focus is its relationship to Corsicana and U.S. Highway 287; for Navarro Mills Lake, it is its location between the two cities and north of Texas Highway 31.

The fishing opportunities also differ. Richland Chambers Reservoir is noted for catfish, crappie, white bass, and hybrid striped bass. Navarro Mills Lake offers excellent fishing for white crappie and catfish; white bass fishing there is sometimes very good. If fishing is part of your travel plans, this information can help you choose the lake that best suits your interests.

Parks, Camping, and Nature Watching

The parks described offer a range of facilities. Wolf Creek Park has 50 sites with water and electrical hookups and 22 sites without electrical hookups. There are also two double sites and one group site. The park also has a fishing pier and a two-lane boat ramp with a dock. At Oak Park, the swimming beach is reserved exclusively for registered campers. Oak Park Day Use is separate and is a distinct park for day visitors.

At Navarro Mills Lake, both Liberty Hill Park and Pecan Point Park offer camping. Liberty Hill Park has boat ramps, a fishing pier, and a swimming beach; it is also considered a good place to see wildflowers. Access is via State Highway 31, Dawson, and FM 709. Check road conditions before setting out. Wildflowers can also be seen at Pecan Point Park. The park offers diverse habitat for abundant wildlife, and visitors to the lake can enjoy birdwatching year-round.

The park information helps distinguish between different interests: at Wolf Creek Park, site types and hookups are relevant, while Liberty Hill Park is noted for features including a boat ramp, fishing pier, and swimming beach. Visitors interested in nature watching will find specific opportunities at Liberty Hill and Pecan Point. Keep the access restriction at Oak Park separate from the facilities offered at the other parks.

Early Settlements and Historic Sites

Spring Hill is considered the oldest settlement in Navarro County. Its springs supplied Indigenous communities with water for centuries before white settlers arrived. A cemetery and some foundations along abandoned roads still mark the site of the former settlement. The site’s history therefore predates the later Anglo-American settlement of the county.

The historic area of Navarro Mills Community is marked by a cemetery, a Baptist church founded in 1901, and a tabernacle built in 1915. Long Prairie Cemetery is designated a “Historic Texas Cemetery.” It contains the graves of veterans of conflicts dating back to the American Civil War. The cemetery at the former Liberty Hill settlement also preserves local history: it marks an Anglo-American community established in the decade after the 1838 Battle Creek Massacre. The cemetery is one mile west of the site.

Oil History and Corsicana

Corsicana has several historic sites connected to early oil production. Petroleum Park marks the site of the first oil discovery in Texas, which led to commercial oil production in 1894 while drilling for water. The Magnolia Oil Refinery in Corsicana was the site of Texas’s first commercial oil refinery in 1898. These dates mark successive stages in this history: the discovery and start of commercial production in 1894, followed by the refinery in 1898.

Exxon Mobil, successor to Magnolia Petroleum and Mobil Oil, still maintains one of the four original brick-lined furnaces of the Magnolia Oil Refinery. Corsicana was designated an official Texas Main Street City in 1985. Together with historic cemeteries and settlement traces elsewhere in the county, these sites offer a picture that encompasses both early settlement and the development of the oil industry.

Discover More Destinations

Discover more destinations: Corsicana, Howard, Gillespie County, Comanche, Stonewall County, Eastland County, Winkler County, Hutchinson County.

For the broader travel overview: Texas.