Silsbee Ice House Museum & Cultural Center

The historic Ice House Museum is unique to Silsbee, Texas. In the heart of the city, the Cultural Center provides informative details on the history of Silsbee, and is a frequent venue for many weddings and parties. The stage is often used for productions under Silsbee Little Theater and the Silsbee High School Theater Department.

Housed in a 1920's Ice House, the Ice House Museum and Cultural Center houses a rotating collection of artifacts and fine art, as well as permanent and temporary exhibits. The Ice House Museum also sponsors events, including music, art festivals, photography and art competitions, and an Education Department to provide onsite guided tours for schools, and home schooled students.

The Ice House is located at 818 Earnest Avenue in Silsbee. Phone 409.385.2444.

For more information, visit ...

Website of Silsbee Ice House Museum & Cultural Center

Pines Theater

In Silsbee visitors and residents can still enjoy first run movies for $1 during the week in a setting that takes one back in time.

In November 2005, the Texas Downtown Association honored the Pines Theatre with the designation of Enduring Business of the Year.

Silsbee Public Library

Centered in the downtown area, the Silsbee Public Library has a wide range of programs to enjoy. In addition to great books and a large children's reading section, the library offers a busy event calendar to help children fall in love with reading and books!

The library also offers an online card catalogue, and public computers for use whether it be work or play. A beautiful meeting room can be rented for meetings and small events.

It is located at 295 North 4th Street. Phone 409.385.4831

For more information, visit the website of the Silsbee Public Library

Silsbee Veteran's Memorial Park

The Silsbee Veterans’ Memorial Park offers a place for reflection and memorial to those who have served their country from Hardin County.

Village Creek State Park

Village Creek State Park’s 1,090 heavily forested acres are located in the Hardin County town of Lumberton, about nine miles south of Silsbee. The state acquired the property in 1979, and the park opened in 1994.

Village Creek State Park takes its name from Village Creek, a free-flowing stream that rises near the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation. The creek meanders 69 miles southeast to a junction with the Neches River. The river in turn eventually empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

Village Creek is a very popular flat-water canoeing stream in the heart and soul of what remains of the Big Thicket. Heavy rainfall severely floods the banks of Village Creek every three or four years.

Here visitors can camp, picnic, fish, hike, mountain bike, swim, geocache, study nature and view wildlife. A covered picnic pavilion can also be rented for group gatherings.

Portions of the park lie in the floodplains of Village Creek and the Neches River. Bottomland hardwood forests full of cypress-tupelo swamps, baygall and backwater sloughs abound here. These wetlands provide habitat for beaver and river otter

, as well as for many kinds of fish, snakes, turtles and frogs.

Birders will enjoy seeing wood ducks, egrets, herons, woodpeckers and owls, just to name a few. Over 200 species of birds are native to the Big Thicket area.

It is located at 8854 Park Road 74 in Lumberton.

Village Creek State Park at Texas Parks and Wildlife

Big Thicket National Preserve

The Big Thicket is an area of dense forest located north of Silsbee.

This 97,000 acre National Preserve protects a unique environmental confluence of swamps, coastal prairies, piney woods, plant life and animals.

For more information visit the Big Thicket website at NPS

Roy E. Larsen Sandyland Sanctuary

The Roy E. Larsen Sandyland Sanctuary, located 2 miles west of Silsbee on Hwy. 327, harbors a variety of plant communities, including one of the last remaining Longleaf Pine communities in Texas.

Nestled along the banks of Village Creek, Sandylands Sanctuary protects and preserves 5,654 acres of East Texas’ great natural heritage. The preserve is a hotbed for biodiversity, where one can find cacti, pines, ferns, colorful wildflowers and wildlife, including songbirds and roadrunners.

A rare combination of swamp, open-floor forest and Southern pine lands create a preserve with remarkable diversity, sustaining 727 plant species and 234 animal species. Visitors can hike, bird watch and study nature, or rent a canoe from local vendors on Village Creek.

Connected with the Big Thicket National Preserve, the preserve also serves as a corridor for wildlife as they feed, breed, move and migrate through southeast Texas. 

For more information visit the Sandyland Sanctuary website at the Nature Conservancy