Located on the west banks of the Sabine River, the area that is now Shelby County was part of an ill-defined border region between Louisiana and Texas known in the early nineteenth century as the Neutral Ground, a haven for outlaws and smugglers. Settlers started to arrive in the 1820s. Land fraud schemes led to the Regulator-Moderator War of 1840–1843, with most of the major battles fought in the vicinity. Land for the town was donated in 1857, and it was voted the county seat in January 1866, but the choice was disputed by the residents of Shelbyville, the existing county seat. In August 1866, residents of Center stole the county records, taking them to Center, where they remain. Today, timber and poultry agribusinesses are supplemented by recreational tourism to the large Sabine National Forest and Toledo Bend Reservoir.
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