Garden Valley is a
crossroads community
In Colonial American history, a crossroads village is a settlement that was situated where two or more roads would intersect. The owners of farmland along a frequently traveled trail, path, or road, often paralleling a water route, would plan a ...
in
Smith County about 7 miles west of
Lindale, Texas.
It is 79 miles east of
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
.
Historically, prior to the formation of nearby town of
Van (6 miles west of Garden Valley) in the late 1920s, when oil was discovered there, Garden Valley was a town with a post office, stage coach station, and hotel.
Today, only one stop sign is in the community's center, with no businesses or public buildings. The city had a population of 150 people in 2000.
Garden Valley is headquarters of Christian ministries
Mercy Ships
Mercy Ships is an international charity that operates the largest non-governmental hospital ships in the world, providing humanitarian aid like free health care, community development projects, community health education, mental health programs, ...
,
Tyler
and JAMA Global.
It was also the home of Last Days Ministries, the ministry of the late Christian singer
Keith Green
Keith Gordon Green (October 21, 1953 – July 28, 1982) was an American pianist, singer, and songwriter in the contemporary Christian music genre, who was originally from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. His most notable songs are " There ...
; Green (along with two of his small children, who died in a plane crash) is interred in the Garden Valley Cemetery behind the local Baptist church.
References
Towns in Texas
Geography of Smith County, Texas
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