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• Approximately one million tourists visit Marshall each year.
• On February 14, 1854, the first telegraph office in Texas was opened in Marshall with connections to Shreveport, Alexandria and New Orleans.
• Constructed in 1898, the Weisman Building served as the department store of Joe Weisman & Company and was the first department store in Texas.
• With the installation of a single light bulb at the Texas and Pacific Depot, Marshall became the first city in Texas to have electricity.
• The city’s most prominent industry, pottery manufacturing, began with the establishment of Marshall Pottery
  in 1895.
• Marshall is closer to the capitals of Arkansas (Little Rock 190 miles), Louisiana (Baton Rouge 239 miles), and Mississippi (Jackson 243 miles) than it is to the capital of Texas (Austin, 253 miles).
• Three major civil rights leaders were educated in Marshall. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and later Jesse Jackson attended Bishop College
  while James L. Farmer Jr. went to Wiley College.
• Each school year, there are approximately two thousand college students in Marshall attending East Texas Baptist University, Wiley College,
  Texas State Technical College and Panola College.
• Marshall was one of ten cities designated an All American City in 1976 by the National Civic League.
• Marshall is officially the sister city of Taipei, Taiwan.
• Historians have known since the 1930’s that Boogie Woogie piano originated in the piney woods of northeast Texas. Research shows that the music emerged in the 1870’s in close proximity to the T&P Railroad, headquartered in Marshall, Texas. Marshall now has a Boogie Woogie Artist-in-Residence, Omar Sharriff, formerly known as Dave Alexander, and Marshall is recognized as The Birthplace of Boogie Woogie™.
• The city is known for producing one of the largest light festivals in the U.S. In fact, Wonderland of Lights has become such a part of the cityscape that the lighted dome of the 1901 historic Harrison County Courthouse has become the most recognizable symbol of the city. 2011 marks the 25th anniversary of the famed festival and the City expects more than 200,000 visitors during the event’s 40 day run.