Texas Porch

Marion County, Texas

7 local notes for Marion County — practical, plain-English, and pointed at the official source to confirm. East Texas / Piney Woods.

Money & Taxes

Property Tax

Two offices handle your property tax bill in Marion County

The Marion Central Appraisal District sets your property value, while a separate Tax Office collects what you owe — two different offices with two different jobs.

Home & Property

Septic / OSSF

Most rural land in Marion County relies on a septic system

Outside city limits, most homes use an on-site sewage facility — a septic system — and Texas law requires a permit and a licensed site evaluation before you build or change one.

Outdoors

State Park

Caddo Lake State Park sits on a vast cypress swamp near Karnack

Caddo Lake State Park gives you access to a 26,810-acre lake full of cypress trees, more than 70 fish species, and CCC-built cabins from the 1930s.

Rules & Licenses

Public Hunting

Caddo Lake Wildlife Management Area allows public hunting with a permit

The Caddo Lake WMA covers about 8,124 acres in Marion and Harrison counties and is open to hunters who obtain the required permit from TPWD.

History & Culture

Historic District

Jefferson's downtown is on the National Register of Historic Places

A 47-block area of Jefferson was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, preserving dozens of 19th-century buildings from the town's days as Texas's leading inland port.

County Origins

Marion County was carved from Cass County in 1860 and named for a Revolutionary War hero

Marion County was created on February 8, 1860, from the southern part of Cass County, and named for Francis Marion — the 'Swamp Fox' of the American Revolution.

Historic Courthouse

The 1913 Marion County Courthouse was restored and reopened in 2021

The Marion County Courthouse in Jefferson was built in 1913 and underwent a full historic restoration — finishing with a ribbon-cutting in May 2021 — under the Texas Historical Commission's courthouse program.

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