Seven Pines, TX

Seven Pines, a farming community on State Highway 300 a mile north of Longview and twelve miles southeast of Gilmer on the Gregg-Upshur county line, was established around 1900 and named for seven large pine trees at the site. The town boomed when oil was discovered in the East Texas oilfield in the early 1930s; by the mid-1930s it had a number of stores and a population of several hundred, mostly oilfield workers. In subsequent years the town dwindled to a few businesses and the seven pine trees were cut down. By the mid-1960s all that remained of the community was a few stores and some scattered houses; the estimated population in 1966 was 100. In 1990 Seven Pines was a dispersed rural community on the outskirts of Longview, where many of its residents worked. In 2000 the population was fifty.