Nacogdoches is a city in Nacogdoches County, in the Piney Woods of Deep East Texas, and it holds the distinction of being regarded as the oldest town in Texas. The 2020 census counted 32,147 residents. The area was inhabited by the Caddo Indians long before Spanish settlement, and the town was formally founded in 1779 by Don Antonio Gil Y'Barbo, giving it a continuous history stretching back more than two centuries. That history is visible throughout the city. Historic structures include the Sterne-Hoya House, the Old University Building, the Blount House, and Millard's Crossing, a preserved nineteenth-century village. The city celebrates its layered past — Caddo, Spanish, Mexican, and Texan — and its identity as Texas' oldest town is a point of civic pride. Nacogdoches is also a college town. Stephen F. Austin State University, founded in 1923 as a teachers' college and renamed for the Texas founding figure, anchors the city and is known for its forestry and agriculture programs, with its Lumberjack athletics drawing regional attention. The university brings a steady flow of students, faculty, and cultural activity to the community. The city calls itself the Garden Capital of Texas, a claim supported by the Ruby M. Mize Azalea Garden — the largest azalea garden in the state — along with the Lanana Creek Trail and the Stephen F. Austin Mast Arboretum, the first arboretum at a Texas university. These green spaces thread through the city and bloom spectacularly each spring. Public education is provided by Nacogdoches ISD, with the university adding higher-education depth. U.S. Highway 59, designated as part of the future Interstate 69 corridor, connects Nacogdoches to Lufkin and the wider East Texas region. The result is a city that pairs genuine historical depth and garden-filled beauty with the liveliness of a regional university town.