One of many East Texas towns that celebrate spring’s floral wonders, Woodville traces the origin of its Dogwood Festival to a 1938 barbecue held to lobby state officials for construction of a highway from Huntsville to the Louisiana border. Taken with the dogwood’s beauty, James E. Wheat (who would become the first president of the Texas State Historical Survey Committee, which became the Texas Historical Commission) suggested an annual observance, and the festival emerged several years before the highway. Mementos and memorabilia are exhibited in the Allan Shivers Library and Museum, dedicated to the Texas governor who spent his childhood in Woodville. Just outside town is the Heritage Village Museum, which grew from a 1950s tourist attraction and now features more than 30 relocated and replicated pioneer structures.