City Spotlight: Denison
Right on the banks of the Red River, a mile south of the Texas-Oklahoma border, there’s a little town called Dension. It’s home to only around 25,000 people, but it’s got a significant, surprising history, so it’s an awesome day trip destination.
The Longest Main Street in Texas
Like many North and Central Texas towns in the late 19th century, Denison came along with the railroad. It was founded in 1872 and almost immediately became a bustling commercial center in the expanding frontier. To accommodate all the interests and businesses, Denison built what they claim is the longest Main Street district in Texas, which is still a really cool place with a couple hundred businesses to explore to this day.
The first place you’ll want to go in the Main Street district is the Red River Railroad Museum, where you can learn all about the world of 19th-century railroads and how Denison became such an important hub along the Missouri-Kansas-Texas line. There are also all kinds of fun antique shops and boutiques with items you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else — like Monsters on Main, where you can shop for all these adorable, handsewn monster pillows and stuffed animals.
Once you’ve got your morning dose of history and met a new monster pal, you’re ready for lunch. I heavily recommend you head over to Cafe Blackbird on Main Street. It’s everything you could want in a cafe — part bakery, part coffee shop, part sandwich shop, and everything is made from scratch. The dessert is really where it’s at, though. Their cakes and pies seriously must have hopped off the cover of Southern Living magazine. But, best of all, their famous chocolate chip walnut cookies are epic and are some of the best cookies I’ve ever eaten. And even if you’re an adult who still eats lunch before dessert, their lunch menu is killer, too.
Famous Denizens of Denison
Another cool thing about downtown Denison is the murals of famous Denison residents, including Captain “Sully” Sullenberger. Remember him? The airline pilot who avoided an airplane crash by landing it in the Hudson River? He’s from Denison, and there’s a great mural of him downtown.
Another famous Denisonite: Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States and the Supreme Allied Commander during World War II. His birthplace is a state landmark, just a few blocks south of Main Street. You can explore the house he was born in, way back in 1890. It’s a neat little tour that gives a glimpse into an incredible historical figure’s upbringing.
Another famous house to visit is called the Vinita House, but to understand why this house is well-known, we’ll have to go back to its roots. (That’s a pun — I’ll explain.) In the 1860s, France was hit with an invasion of little mites called phylloxera that killed thousands and thousands of acres of grapevines. The French grape farmers (viticulturists) stood to lose all their historic vines that had been so important to their industry for so long. They asked if anyone had a solution — enter T. V. Munson, our third famous Denison resident.
Munson had become an expert in wild grapes right here in Texas, where he learned that Texas grapes’ rootstock was incredibly hardy and might resist the pest better. He cultivated tens of thousands of his Texas rootstock and sent it to France, and they grafted their French vines with the Texan rootstock. Sure enough, the tough Texan roots worked, and Munson became a hero across Europe for saving the grape industry. It was such an important accomplishment to the French that they sailed across the sea to give him the Legion of Honor right here in Denison. (The only other American they had given it to previously was Thomas Jefferson.)
Anyway, it’s an awesome and little-known story. Munson lived in the Vinita House, which is open to the public to tour and learn more about his story.
Oh, and one more name you might recognize: Doc Holliday, the friend who fought beside Wyatt Earp at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Before he met Earp, Holliday had an office in Denison where he practiced dental medicine. I’m not sure where the building is in town or whether it still stands, but it’s a fun historical tidbit.
Last Stops in Denison
While in the area, you should swing by Eisenhower State Park on the Texas side of Lake Texoma. It has beautiful vistas atop limestone cliffs that offer incredible park views. There’s a great swimming beach, fun fishing spots, and plenty of hiking. My favorite thing about the park is that the limestone cliffs have crumbled into these giant boulders, making it a popular site for bouldering (climbing without ropes).
After an afternoon outdoors, swing back through Denison for dinner at Huck’s Catfish. It’s a perennial powerhouse that gets voted Best Catfish of the Texoma area every year for serving delicious fried catfish. (They call it Mississippi Delta catfish — but it’s tasty nonetheless.) It’s not battered with heavy cornmeal like most catfish but with corn flour. It’s a little bit lighter, which is delicious. Huck’s serves it with their house-made green tomato relish, which sounds kind of weird but is a quintessential part of the Southern experience. You can’t go through Denison without it.
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