Awning Dealers Wanted: Upshur County

Upshur County is East Texas with a festival at its heart: Gilmer, the county seat, population around 4,800, and home of the East Texas Yamboree, the sweet-potato festival celebrated since 1935. Local businesses and schools treat Yamboree week like a national holiday, three days of contests at the fairgrounds, the crowning of the Yamboree Queen, a big parade, and a carnival that covers the downtown square. It is one of the oldest civic festivals in Texas, and it makes Gilmer famous in a way few towns its size can claim.

The county’s quirks run charmingly deep. Yamboree Park on Hwy 271 hosts the livestock grounds, the exhibit building, and RV camping for travelers. The Upshur Museum sits in the 1925 Post Office building on the northeast corner of the courthouse square, with the Upshur County Courthouse itself at 100 W. Tyler St. At 216 S. Wood Street on Hwy 271, Oglesby’s Tire and Rock Museum keeps one of the county’s oddest collections, and the Flight of the Phoenix Museum at the Gilmer Municipal Airport covers aviation history. Six miles north on Hwy 155, Barnwell Mountain’s 1,800 acres of off-road trails draw ATV and motorcycle riders.

Even the roads tell you this is a place with personality: county roads are named by quadrant, animal names in the northwest, flower names in the northeast, tree names in the southwest, bird names in the southeast. Gilmer itself is named for Thomas W. Gilmer, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, who died in the 1844 USS Princeton explosion. Lake Bob Sandlin touches the county’s northeast edge, bringing shoreline cabins and fishing weekends into the market.

The housing stock favors honest value: ranch homes, country acreage, courthouse-square neighborhoods, and lake-adjacent cabins, with patios and porches that work hard from spring through fall. Pine pollen, summer insects, and west-facing sun are the everyday enemies of outdoor space here. Buyers respect straight dealing and premium products that earn their price, which is exactly what a 15-year factory warranty does.

The territory rule is the same one that makes every dealer territory work: our factory’s in-house installation covers Southern California only, San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. In Upshur County, the dealer sells and installs locally, with our training, measuring guidance, and technical support behind every job. The install revenue and the customer relationship stay in the county.