Paris, Texas

Everything Paris is known for

131 songs mention this city 5 artists from here

Paris, Texas, located in Northeast Texas at the western edge of the Piney Woods, has a distinct musical identity. The city is home to country artists like Gene Watson and Leslie Satcher, and reggae artist Cas Haley. Paris has also inspired numerous songs, with 108 tracks in our collection mentioning the city. These include "Paris, Texas" by Troy Cartwright and "Paris; Texas (feat. SYML)" by Lana Del Rey.

The city, known for its 65-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower topped with a red cowboy hat, continues to be a point of reference in music. Songs like "honky tonk in paris" by mackynsie mckedy and "PARIS" by Santiago Jimenez Jr. further showcase Paris, Texas's place in the musical landscape.

Music in Paris

Songs About Paris

Paris, Texas
Troy Cartwright
90%
All Gold, All Girls (Remix)
Cassie Latshaw
70%
"Just shopping in Paris (Paris)"
Murder to Excellence
Jay-Z
52%
"other boutique stores in Paris"
114 Miles to Paris
Kirk Harper
52%
"114 Miles to Paris"
Paris, Texas
Tim Hill
50%
"SONG: Paris, Texas"
Paris, Texas
Lana Del Rey
50%
"I went to Paris (Texas)"
All the Rage in Paris
Jim Lauderdale
50%
"All the rage in Paris"
Don’t You Worry ’Bout a Thing
Stevie Wonder
35%
"I've been to, you know, Paris, Beirut..."
With Crippled Wings
Lift to Experience
35%
"From Athens to London to Paris to Rhome"
All the Things
Lucas Jagneaux
30%
"Paint a street scene in Paris just before the dawn"
PARIS
Santiago Jimenez Jr.
25%
"Imaginar que estamos en parís"
King Size Bed
Caylee Hammack
25%
"Rendezvous, Moulin Rouge"
Paris; Texas (feat. SYML)
Lana Del Rey
25%
"TITLE"
Paris; Texas
Ry Cooder
24%
"TITLE"
honky tonk in paris
mackynsie mckedy
23%
Paris; Texas
Troy Cartwright
23%
"TITLE"
Paris, Texas (feat. SYML)
Lana Del Rey
21%
BACK to YOU
Tyla
20%
"Diamonds and carats, kissing in Paris"
Paris, Texas
Ry Cooder
19%
(Da Le) Yaleo
Santana
15%
"Yo la vi cantando en París"

Showing top 20 of 131 songs

Artists From Paris

G
Gene Watson
country Pop: 47
C
Cas Haley
reggae Pop: 41
C
Colton Sanders
country Pop: 4
L
Leslie Satcher
country Pop: 1
P
Phillip Nance
country Pop: 1

Rivers & Roads in Song near Paris

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Paris.

Red River 84 songs Kickapoo Creek 4 songs

History of Paris

Bass Reeves: The Marshal Who Came to Paris, Texas RoadyGoat

1893

For four years, the legendary deputy marshal Bass Reeves worked out of right here in Paris. When the federal courts covering Indian Territory were reorganized in 1893, Reeves was assigned to the Eastern District of Texas court at Paris, where he served until 1897. During those Texas years he broke up the Tom Story horse-stealing ring that had been plaguing the Red River country. Reeves spent thirty-two years as a federal peace officer in all, credited with more than three thousand arrests and, by his own account, killing fourteen men, always in the line of duty, though the newspapers of the day sometimes put the number higher. Today, inside the Lamar County courthouse, a bronze statue of Bass Reeves by sculptor Eddie Dixon stands watch on the stairway landing, honoring the man who once carried the law into the Territory from this very town. (Sources: TSHA Handbook of Texas; Houston Chronicle; Encyclopedia of Arkansas.)

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Paris, TX RoadyGoat

Paris, Texas. It’s a town that hums with the echoes of names both familiar and perhaps forgotten. You might drive in and see the Eiffel Tower, complete with its cowboy hat, and think it's all just a bit of Texas whimsy. But spend a little time here, and you’ll find the ground is layered with stories. Before the railroads crisscrossed the landscape and turned Paris into a cotton hub, the Caddo people called this place home. Later, the town became a crossroads where fortunes were made and lives were shaped.

Paris, TX RoadyGoat

Paris, Texas, sits on land that feels surprisingly flat after you’ve driven through the rolling hills and forests approaching it. At just 600 feet above sea level, it’s a subtle plateau, a gentle rise that offered a strategic advantage. The Caddo people knew this land long before settlers arrived, understanding its potential for agriculture and trade. You can almost imagine them charting paths along the waterways that once crisscrossed this area, long before the railroads came. That relatively level ground proved crucial when the rails arrived. Paris became a natural hub, a place where cotton from the surrounding Blackland Prairie could be easily shipped across the country. The soil here is deep and fertile, perfect for that crop, and it fueled the town's early growth. Even today, you can see how manufacturing has taken root, continuing that legacy of industry and distribution. It’s a testament to how the land itself— its flatness, its soil—shaped the city’s destiny, even as it embraces its quirky, modern identity with a little Eiffel Tower wearing a cowboy hat.

Reeves, Bass

1875

Bass Reeves, the first black commissioned United States deputy marshal west of the Mississippi River, was born to enslaved parents in July 1838 near Paris, Texas. He relocated to Indian Territory after severely beating his young master in a dispute over cards and lived among the "five civilized tribes," especially the Creeks, as a fugitive until 1863. Freed by the Emancipation Proclamation and no longer a fugitive, the six-foot-two, 190-pound former slave left the Indian country, bought land near Van Buren, Arkansas, and became a successful stockman and farmer. He married Nellie Jennie (or Jinney), a Texas native, in 1864, and they raised a family of ten, five boys and five girls. After his first wife's death, Reeves married Winnie Sumter of Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1900 and started a second family. When Isaac C. Parker was appointed judge for the Federal Western District Court at Fort Smith, Arkansas, on May 10, 1875, to bring law to the Indian Territory, one of his first official acts was to swear in a United States marshal and appoint 200 deputies to curb the lawlessness in the area. White outlaws had so terrorized the interior groups, especially the Creeks and Seminoles, that Whites, with or without a badge, were unwelcome. Reeves was recruited because he knew the tribal languages and country well, and as a black he did not suffer from the reputation for abuse produced by the activities of the White criminal element among the Indians. Reeves had a well-earned reputation for law enforcement south of the Red River. He killed fourteen men in the performance of his duty while assigned to the federal district courts at Paris and Sherman, Texas, during his thirty-two-year career as deputy. Among them were Bob Dozier, a master criminal whose illegal activities included cattle and horse theft, land swindles, and murder, and who eluded Reeves for several years before being killed after refusing to surrender in the rain and mud in the Cherokee Hills. Another outlaw was Tom Story, expert horse thief and murderer, who sold stolen horses south of the Red River from 1884 to 1889, and who lost his life at the Delaware Bend crossing in an attempt to beat Reeves to the draw. Jim Webb, a cowboy and horse thief with eleven notches on his pistol handle, was outshot in a fierce running gunfight after a manhunt that lasted from 1893 to 1895; the dying Webb acknowledged Reeves as the better man by giving the deputy his pistol and scabbard. Dependability and devotion to duty were the benchmarks of Reeves's service to the government. Many of the district courts asked for Reeves because of his reliability in serving warrants. Having never learned to read and write, he had someone to read the subpoenas or warrants to him until he memorized which name belonged to each warrant. If the man Reeves arrested could not read, then the deputy had to locate someone who could to make sure that he had the right person. The deputy's respect for the law was legendary. He was always acquitted of the deaths of his prisoners. However, it was his refusal to make exceptions that was extraordinary. He once arrested his own son on a murder warrant after a two-week manhunt. His son was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison, but was later given a full pardon. After 1907 the role and the duties of the United States deputy marshal as a primary law-enforcement officer were assumed by state agencies. At the age of sixty-nine Reeves accepted a job as patrolman with the Muskogee city police department, and from 1907 to 1909 there was reportedly never a crime committed on his beat. In 1909 his health failed, and he died on January 12, 1910, of Bright's disease.

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Origin of the Paris Fire of 1916

1916

On March 21, 1916, a fire swept through Paris that consumed 264 acres and 1,440 buildings and killed three people. Property loss was estimated at $11 million. Paris was founded in the mid-1840s, and many of the town’s historic structures were lost in the fire including the Federal Building and Post Office, the Lamar County Courthouse and Jail, City Hall, numerous commercial buildings and several churches. Substantial rainfall in Paris last occurred 51 days prior, and winds gusting up to 60 mph that day likely contributed to the city’s dryness. Although no one is certain how the fire started, it is known that there was a small trash fire burning near Sid Long’s timber warehouse on SW 4th street and Frisco avenue, and an alarm was sounded at 5:30 p.m. The high winds quickly set fire to roof shingles in the surrounding blocks. Mayor Ed H. Mccuistion sent out appeals to nearby fire departments after he decided that widespread conflagration was imminent. Bonham, Cooper, Dallas, Honey Grove and Hugo, Oklahoma, answered the call, and the fire was under control by 3:30 a.m. Chamber President Henry P. Mayer prepared a sign for a meeting the following day that simply read “Smile.” The slogan was adopted quickly and encouraged residents to rebuild the city with optimism. The Civic League, which had organized just two days before, shifted its focus from beautification to sanitation because the fire left many residents living in tents and shacks. Paris was reconstructed quickly with the help of out of town architects, local builders and citizens. Paris’ reconstruction produced one of the best examples of architectural integrity and geographically-concentrated post-Victorian buildings in the United States.

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John James Culbertson

1884

(March 16, 1853 - September 27, 1932) Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, John James Culbertson grew up in large northeastern cities. He married Emily Lou Lee of New Jersey in 1882 and soon became a salesman for a cotton product company based in Alabama. During his southern travels, Culbertson saw the potential for profit from cottonseed oil. He moved to Paris and was instrumental in building the first Paris cotton mill about 1884. The company, Paris Oil Works, was sold to American Cotton Oil Trust in 1887, and Culbertson moved to Arkansas to manage a southern oil company plant. Four years later the Culbertsons returned to Paris, where he built a small cottonseed oil empire through the Paris Oil and Cotton Company, later known as Southland Cotton Oil Company. Culbertson was asked to participate in a master plan for the growth of Paris in 1913. As an influential Texas financier, he was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas when it was formed in 1914. His nationwide reputation as a cotton producer led President Woodrow Wilson to appoint him to the board that organized a bureau to oversee cotton and cottonseed products for the U. S. Food Administration in 1917. After Paris was ravaged by fire in 1916, John and Emily Culbertson were among leading citizens who rebuilt the city. Held in high esteem by the people of Paris, the Culbertsons gave many public spaces, monuments and works of art to the city and several local institutions, including the Paris Public Library and the fountain of imported Carrara marble on the city's central plaza. (1999)

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Paris Fire

1916

Although Paris was founded in the mid-1840s, many of its historic structures were lost in a fire that destroyed almost half the town in 1916. The blaze started about five o'clock on the afternoon of March 21, 1916, at the S. J. Long Warehouse near the southwest city limits. Its cause is unknown, but one theory is that a spark from a switch engine ignited dry grass near the warehouse. Winds estimated at 50 miles per hour soon blew the fire out of control as it burned a funnel-shaped path to the northeast edge of Paris. Firemen from Bonham, Cooper, Dallas, Honey Grove, and Hugo, Okla., helped the Paris Fire Department battle the flames, which were visible up to 40 miles away. The blaze destroyed most of the central business district and swept through a residential area before it was controlled at about sunrise on March 22. Property damage from the fire was estimated at $11,000,000. The structures burned included the Federal Building and post office, Lamar County Courthouse and Jail, City Hall, most commercial buildings, and several churches. Rebuilding was begun quickly as townspeople collected relief funds and opened their homes to the victims. A railroad and market center before the disaster, Paris soon regained its former prosperity.

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Aikin, A. M., Jr.

1949

A. M. Aikin, Jr., legislator, son of A. M. and Mattie (Stephens) Aikin, was born at Aikin Grove in Red River County, Texas, on October 9, 1905. His parents moved to Lamar County in 1907 to operate a country store. Aikin attended a three-teacher school in Milton, then rode horseback four miles to Deport each day until he graduated from high school. He credited his lifetime interest in education to the early personal difficulties he encountered in acquiring his own education. He milked cows to earn room and board at Paris Junior College and worked in a department store in Paris from 1925 to 1931 to earn enough money to attend Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, where he graduated with a bachelor of laws degree in 1932. In 1929 Aikin married Welma Morphew, a lifelong advocate of landscape beautification, whose career included serving as a regent of Paris Junior College. The Aikins had one son. Aikin, a Democrat, began his political career in 1932, when he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives. He completed two terms before going to the Senate in 1937. He served forty-six years in the state's two legislative chambers and missed only 2½ legislative days in his career. From his first year in elective office, he supported every major educational bill passed by the legislature. He was an advocate of all-weather farm-road legislation on the grounds that schools were of little value to students if they were inaccessible. Aikin, "the father of modern Texas education," is best remembered as the cosponsor with Representative Claud Gilmer of Rocksprings of the Gilmer-Aikin Laws . These measures, passed in 1949, established a centralized state education system and the Minimum Foundation school program, which provided state-financed minimum teachers' salaries and set guaranteed public school funding levels for other related expenditures. In addition Aikin authored legislation to increase state aid to public schools, including colleges, and sponsored a bill in 1933 to establish the Teacher Retirement System, which became a constitutional amendment in 1937. In 1956 he sponsored an amendment to establish a minimum retirement compensation of $100 a month to attract capable teachers to the profession. Aikin served on the Senate Finance Committee beginning in 1937, when he became a senator, and chaired that committee from 1967 until he retired in 1979. In 1943 he was president pro tem of the Senate and acting governor for fourteen days in the absence of Governor Coke Stevenson . Aikin became dean of the Senate in 1963 and dean emeritus upon his retirement. The A. M. and Welma Aikin Regional Archives, a part of the Mike Rheudasil Learning Center at Paris Junior College, was established to honor Aikin in 1978 and houses his papers, a replica of his Senate office, and a gallery of memorabilia related to his career. The archives also houses local-history manuscript collections from Delta, Fannin, Lamar, and Red River counties and is a regional depository for the local records division of the Texas State Library . The Aikin Monolith, a Texas red granite monument, towers outside the entrance to the Aikin Archives, a gift of the Texas Association of Public Junior Colleges. Aikin died in Paris on October 24, 1981. In 1985 the A. M. Aikin Regents Chair in Junior and Community College Education and the A. M. Aikin Regents Chair in Education Leadership were established at the University of Texas, with a total endowment of $1 million. Former Paris Junior College president Louis B. Williams led the fund-raising effort. The total gift of $500,000 was matched from the Permanent University Fund to establish the memorial.

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Chisum, John Simpson

1854

John Simpson Chisum, pioneer cattleman, son of Claiborne C. and Lucinda (Chisum) Chisum, was born in Hardeman County, Tennessee, on August 16, 1824. His parents were cousins. He was reared on his grandfather's plantation, one of five children, and accompanied his parents and a group of relatives to Red River County, Texas, during the summer of 1837. Claiborne Chisum, probably the earliest settler in Paris, Texas, was public-spirited and wealthy. John Chisum worked as a store clerk in Paris, served briefly as a road overseer in Hopkins County, accumulated land, operated several small grocery stores, was a member of the I.O.O.F. Lodge, and held the office of Lamar county clerk from 1852 to 1854. With Stephen K. Fowler, a New Orleans investor, he filed on land in northwestern Denton County, purchased a partnership herd, and entered the cattle business with the Half Circle P brand. Chisum also managed herds for neighboring families and various partners and shared in the calves. He became an active cattle dealer in search of markets and drove a small herd to a packing house in Jefferson. By 1860 he was running 5,000 head of cattle, which he valued at $35,000, owned six slaves, and was considered a major cattleman in North Texas. At the outbreak of the Civil War Chisum was exempted from service and placed in charge of several herds in his district. Early in 1862 he took a herd across Arkansas to the Confederate forces at Vicksburg but thereafter exhibited little interest in the Southern cause. In the fall of 1863, suffering from Indian raids and drought, he and other cowmen in the Denton area started moving herds to Coleman County, where they camped on the Concho River near its junction with the Colorado. He terminated ties with Fowler and received cattle for land. Chisum and his partners soon had 18,000 head grazing along the Colorado. In the fall of 1866 he joined Charles Goodnight and others driving cattle to feed the 8,000 Navajos on the Bosque Redondo Reservation near Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Chisum wintered 600 steers near Bosque Grande, below Fort Sumner, and in the spring sold his herd and contracted to furnish additional cattle. The market vanished in 1868, when the army resettled the Navajos in Arizona. Chisum arranged to supply Goodnight, now ranching in Colorado, with Texas cattle for markets there and in Wyoming. For three years he delivered 10,000 head annually to Goodnight crews at Bosque Grande, for one dollar a head over Texas prices. During this period he adopted the Long Rail brand and the Jinglebob earmark for his herds. In 1872 Chisum abandoned his base in Texas and established his headquarters at Bosque Grande; he claimed a range extending more than 100 miles down the Pecos. He loosed herds obtained from Robert K. Wylie, the Coggin brothers , and others in West Texas with his own for fattening and sought markets in New Mexico, Arizona, and Kansas. In the summer of 1874 Chisum won a contract to provide beef to several Apache reservations in New Mexico, only to have his operations crippled by marauding Indians. His total stock losses from 1868 to 1874 reached $150,000, the largest in the nation. In November of 1875 he transferred his livestock holdings, estimated at over 60,000 head of cattle, to Hunter, Evans, and Company, a St. Louis beef-commission house, which assumed his indebtedness, mostly for Texas cattle, of over $200,000. Chisum settled at South Spring River, near Roswell, New Mexico. As he helped Hunter and Evans gather cattle for markets, horse thieves and renegade Indians struck branding crews and horse herds. Lincoln County authorities and the army at Fort Stanton offered little help. Simultaneously, Chisum was drawn into the Lincoln County range war of 1878 by festering difficulties generated by his attorney, Alexander A. McSween, and rancher John H. Tunstall, who defied Judge Lawrence G. Murphy's economic stranglehold on the county. In the summer of 1878, with both Tunstall and McSween dead and th

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Things to Do in Paris

quirky 0.4 mi away
Paris Texas Eiffel Tower

Paris Texas built a sixty-five-foot Eiffel Tower in 1993 to match its name. Then Paris Tennessee built one taller. So Paris Texas topped theirs with a giant…
quirky 0.1 mi away
Paris Texas Eiffel Tower

A 65-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower wearing a red cowboy hat.
day trip
Day Trip to Paris 🗼 FULL EPISODE (S15 E13)

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Everything Near Paris

174 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Explore Paris on the Map
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