Picture a miniature Eiffel Tower rising over a Texas park, with a giant red cowboy hat perched jauntily on top. It's one of the most charming roadside sights in the Lone Star State, and it leaves a lot of visitors wondering how many Parises Texas really has.
Here's the truth: Texas has just one Paris. It's a city of about 24,000 people in Northeast Texas. What is true is that the United States as a whole has a surprising number of places named Paris, around two dozen, scattered from Maine to Idaho. Many were named after the French capital, and some in gratitude for France's help during the American Revolution.
The One and Only Paris, Texas
Paris sits at the western edge of the Piney Woods and is the seat of Lamar County. That county was created in 1840, back when Texas was its own republic, and named after Mirabeau B. Lamar, the Republic of Texas's second president. The city's population was 24,171 in the 2020 census.
Paris grew into a railroad center, starting when the Texas and Pacific line reached town in 1876. It also had to rebuild several times after major fires in 1877, 1896, and 1916. The 1916 fire destroyed almost half the town, including the courthouse, city hall, and most of the businesses downtown. One grand home, the Rufus Fenner Scott Mansion, built in 1910 of solid concrete and steel, narrowly survived. Afterward, Scott brought its architect, J.L. Wees, back to help redesign the historic downtown.
An Eiffel Tower in a Cowboy Hat
In 1993, following a tradition among American towns named Paris, the city commissioned a 65-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower. It isn't the first one, either. An earlier wooden replica was destroyed by a tornado.
The cowboy hat came in 1998. It was presumably a friendly answer to Paris, Tennessee, which had built its own 60-foot tower in 1993. With a few extra feet and a whole lot of Texas style, the hat helped settle any argument about which tower stands out.
America's Many Parises
You can find a Paris in Arkansas, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, New York, Tennessee, and more. Some are cities, others are small unincorporated communities, and a couple of Kansas Parises are now ghost towns.
The names often have patriotic roots. Paris, Kentucky, was founded as Hopewell in 1789, but a year later it was renamed after the French capital, to match its county and honor French help during the Revolution. Paris, Tennessee, incorporated in 1823, was named in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the Revolutionary War.
Not every Paris kept the name. Beresford, South Dakota, and Loraine, California, were both once called Paris.
Famous on the Big Screen
Paris, Texas, even lent its name to a movie. Paris, Texas, the 1984 film directed by Wim Wenders and starring Harry Dean Stanton, follows a man who reunites with his family after a long absence. Funny enough, not a single scene is set in Paris. In the story, it's the place where the main character believes he was conceived and where he owns an empty lot.
So Texas may have only one Paris, but it's a memorable one, and it's well worth a detour. After all, where else can you see the Eiffel Tower dressed and ready for a rodeo?
