24/7 Biohazard and Crime Scene Cleanup in Coldspring, TX

Coldspring is the county seat of San Jacinto County in the East Texas Piney Woods, about 55 miles north of Houston.

According to local tradition, the settlement was named by Joseph Graves for the cold springwater found there, and the land sits on a grant made to American Revolutionary War officer Robert Rankin.

The town's first post office opened in 1847 under the name Coonskin, changed within a year to Fireman's Hill, and became Cold Spring in 1850 — the name was officially respelled as one word, Coldspring, in 1894.

Coldspring became the county seat when San Jacinto County was created in 1870; the county itself is named for the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution.

On March 30, 1915, Coldspring's wooden courthouse burned down, and the townspeople responded by physically relocating their buildings to a new, more elevated townsite around the replacement courthouse, completed in 1918.

The old townsite is now marked by the 1887 San Jacinto County Jail, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and operates as a jail museum.

Coldspring residents did not vote to incorporate until 1969, when the measure passed by a landslide margin of 114 to 10.

The 2020 census counted just 819 people in Coldspring, living in 291 households, making it one of the smaller county seats in Texas.

Coldspring has more than 35 Texas historical markers around town, and its Methodist church, established in 1848, is recognized as the oldest continuously active Methodist church in Texas.

Lake Livingston and the Double Lake Recreation Area of Sam Houston National Forest lie near Coldspring, drawing campers, anglers, and water-skiers to the area.