At Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, marshes, creeks, and cultivated fields form a landscape of many facets. The refuge covers 11,320 acres on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, along with hardwood bottomland forests, wooded uplands, and grassland. Visitors interested in nature and varied habitats will find more than just one type of landscape here.
Nature and Trails at Lake Texoma
More than nine miles of easy to moderately challenging trails offer opportunities to explore the area on foot. Fishing is permitted at the refuge year-round. This lets you choose between hiking and a water-based activity during your stay, without requiring both interests to fit into the same day’s plans.
Eisenhower State Park is also in Grayson County on the shores of Lake Texoma, northwest of Denison. The lake is a reservoir on the Red River along the Texas–Oklahoma border and lies northwest of Sherman-Denison. This regional setting makes Lake Texoma a distinctive landmark in the Grayson landscape, while each place retains its own character.
Eisenhower’s Legacy and Early Homes
At the Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site in Denison, visitors can tour the original 1870s home where Dwight D. Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890. The Ike Hike explores a different period in his biography: the interpretive trail focuses on Eisenhower’s return to Denison in 1946. His birth and return put two clearly distinct points in time in the spotlight.
Frontier Village & Museum focuses on the county’s early history, with 11 of Grayson County’s earliest historic homes and cabins, dating back to the 1840s. Its program also includes classes in historic crafts and living history events. The site thus highlights both historic buildings and the interpretation of early crafts.
Museums, Music, and Viticulture
The Sherman Museum is housed in a historic Carnegie Library dating from 1914. Its collections include three oil paintings on wood by Texas artist James Swann. The three paintings were installed in 1934. They may be the only example of WPA art in Grayson County. The Red River Railroad Museum, in turn, collects, preserves, researches, and interprets railroad artifacts, documents, and visual materials from Denison and North Texas. It also explains the Missouri Kansas Texas Railroad’s importance to Denison’s founding and growth.
In Downtown Denison, historic architecture, year-round events, and public art come together in an area you can easily explore on foot. In Sherman, the Kidd-Key Auditorium is the Sherman Symphony Orchestra’s year-round performance venue. Events and music thus add another cultural perspective to the historical themes.
The T.V. Munson Memorial Vineyard offers a special connection between regional history and viticulture: 65 varieties of the original Munson rootstock continue to grow there. The historic Vinita House was the home where Thomas Volney Munson raised his family and conducted research that saved the French wine industry. Tours of the Grayson College vineyards and the Vinita House are available by request; advance contact is required.
Discover more destinations: Sherman, Denison, Whitesboro, Pottsboro, Gunter, Fayette, Bandera, Fort Bend.
For the main travel overview: Texas.
