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.

The medical facility, East Texas Medical Center at Gilmer, is an entity of East Texas Medical Center in Tyler. There are three staff physicians plus an emergency medical department. In addition, courtesy staff physicians include specialities in surgery, family practice, radiology, pathology, orthopedics and psychiatry. The Center provides 24 hr emergency services backed by an intensive care unit and surgery.

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 building is also available for rent for family reunions, etc.  There are good playground facilities there as well as numerous ball park areas for the community/county baseball, t-ball, and soccer teams.

There are several places that might interest you. The Upshur Museum in the old Post Office building is close to the downtown square. The Flight of the Phoenix Museum is at the airport on 271 just south of town. North of town on Hwy 155 you will find Barnwell Mountain, home of an 1800 acre motorized off-road park, featuring ATV & Motorcycle trails. And don't forget that Yamboree Park just north of town on Hwy 271 has RV facilities for the travelers.

Upshur County is divided into 4 sections.....NW - the roads all have animal names; NE - the roads all have flower names; SW - the roads all have tree names; SE - the roads all have bird names.  This system greatly aids in finding addresses for churches, garage sales, etc.