With a population of about 5,000, Gilmer is located about 1 1/2 hours east of Dallas, about 1 1/2 hour north of Shreveport, LA. and about 30 minutes north east of Tyler. Three main transportation highways run through Gilmer: Highway 154, Highway 271, and Highway 155. Highway 154 goes west to Quitman & Lake Fork, and goes east to Marshall. Highway 271 goes north to Pittsburg & Mt. Pleasant and goes south to Gladewater. Highway 155 goes southwest to Big Sandy & Tyler and goes north east to Ore City, Lake of the Pines, & Linden.

Four miles west of downtown you will find Lake Gilmer. Lake Gilmer Park and Kelsey Creek Sanctuary Nature Trails are located on Armadillo Road, just off Cherokee Trace.

Gilmer has four (4) schools: The Elementary and Intermediate schools are just off Hwy 271, north. Bruce Junior High is on south 271. The Gilmer High School is on Buffalo Street, just north of 154 west.

There are numerous physicians in Gilmer. Upshur County is covered by the Camp County EMS. They will provide access to either ETMC in Pittsburg, which is 16 miles, north or to hospitals in Longview, which is 24 miles, southeast, or to hospitals in Tyler, which is 45 miles southwest. There is a large Physician's Clinic with three physicians, lab and x-ray; plus a Wellness Clinic division.  There is also a Good Shepherd Clinic.  Both clinics ar located on North Titus Street, just one block west of north Hwy 271.

There are two nursing homes in Gilmer and two assisted living facilities.

Being the county seat, Gilmer has numerous restaurants and fast food places, ranging from locally owned family restaurants, burger and sandwich shops, buffet style Chinese, Steak, Mexican, Italian, BBQ & of course American. Gilmer is also home of the famous Doc's Hotlinks.

The Gilmer Civic Center is a large facility built in 1997. The auditorium provides total seating for 1,105. Fixed seating for 424 and additional retractable seating for 681 is available. Seats retract to seat 500 for banquets. The civic center draws both locally produced programs and nationally acclaimed acts and is available for rent.

Gilmer is home of the famous Annual Yamboree, Sweet Potato Festival, having been celebrated since 1935. Local businesses & schools treat this as a national holiday, and everyone closes shop and celebrates the event for 3 days with contests at the fairgrounds, celebration of the years Yamboree Queen, a big parade, and a carnival that covers the downtown square. The Yamboree is now one of the oldest civic festivals in Texas. Yamboree Park includes covered livestock areas and barns as well as the Yamboree building where quilt shows, etc. take place.  The Yamboree Park also good playground facilities there as well as numerous ball park areas for the community/county baseball, t-ball, and soccer teams.

The Yamboree building is also available for rent for family reunions, special events, etc.  The Park is equipped with RV facilities for travelers.

There are several places that might interest you. The Upshur Museum in the old Post Office building is on the northeast corner of the downtown Courthouse Square. The Flight of the Phoenix Museum is at the airport on 271 just south of town. Northeast of town on Hwy 155 you will find Barnwell Mountain, home of an 1800 acre motorized off-road park, featuring ATV & Motorcycle trails.

Upshur County has a great system for road names, other than state or farm-to-market roads, that will enable the traveler and the resident to find addresses for churches, garage sales, etc.

Upshur County is divided into 4 sections:

Northwest - the roads all have animal names
Northeast - the roads all have flower names
Southwest - the roads all have tree names
Southeast - the roads all have bird names