Nacogdoches, city, seat of Nacogdoches County, eastern Texas, in a wooded region, one of the oldest non-Native American communities in the state; incorporated 1837. It is an agricultural, manufacturing, and tourist center; manufactures include processed poultry, animal feed, fertilizer, aluminum furniture, valves, business forms, motor homes, and transformers. Points of interest include a Native American burial mound (circa 1250) and the Adolphus Sterne House (circa 1830). Stephen F. Austin State University (1923) is in the city, and Sam Rayburn Reservoir is nearby. A Spanish mission was established here in 1716. It was abandoned in 1719, but the site, in a region inhabited by the Nacogdoches people, was resettled in 1779. In 1826-27 the community was the center of the Fredonian Rebellion, an unsuccessful attempt to make Texas independent of Mexico. Its inhabitants also were active in the Texas Revolution of the 1830s. Population 27,149 (1980); 30,872 (1990); 29,914 (2000).
