Jefferson is a quaint town of 2,200 in northeastern Texas, a few miles from the Louisiana border. Once steamboats came to Jefferson via the Big Cypress River, and it was a leading city of the Republic of Texas. Although the town forfeited its prominence due to lack of a railroad and loss of river navigation, today it still honors its 19th-century heyday. Known as the "Bed and Breakfast Capital of Texas," it boasts 60 of the establishments.
All guest rooms are on the second floor of the house, patterned on the plantation homes of Natchez and featuring ornate 19th-century furnishings. Breakfast is served daily in the dining room on a Victorian banquet table from the 1870s. Children and pets are not allowed. Next door, the owners operate the Gone With the Wind Museum, celebrating the book and movie. Visitors can see movie posters, more than 75 foreign editions of the book, costume reproductions, autographs of the major stars of the movie and many other articles of memorabilia.
This tour of the Big Cypress Bayou takes about an hour. Tour guides narrate the trip, giving information on the historic steamboat business in Jefferson and the plants and wildlife encountered along the bayou. Once part of the LaSalle Adventure at Six Flags Over Texas, the boats were converted to bayou use in 1985. Each will seat 22 adults. Tours begin at the Polk Street bridge, across from downtown Jefferson. The riverboats do not run during the winter.
The subject of Texas newspaper and magazine articles, as well as television broadcasts, the reputed ghosts appearing in this historic home provide the basis for an hour-long guided tour through The Grove. Built in 1861, the house had a number of owners over the years, but Miss Louise Young, who lived here from the early 1900s till she died in the 1980s, first reported encounters with spirits in the house and gardens. A lady dressed in white is the ghost most often sighted. She even showed up in a photograph taken by a Dallas tourist. Children under 8 years are barred from the tour.
Taking part in community activities throughout the year, the train is a reproduction of an 1870s steam locomotive. Designed and built in 1964 for the Six Guns Territory amusement park in Florida, Jefferson acquired it in 1986. The engine pulls open cars of passengers. During October, it becomes the Terror on the Bayou Fright Train. In November, when Jefferson celebrates its Native American and pre-Civil War heritage, the train figures in the Trammel's Trace Rendezvous. Following that, the railway sponsors the Rail of Lights during the Christmas and New Year's season.
