Canton is a city in northeastern Texas and the county seat of Van Zandt County, sitting directly on Interstate 20 about 60 miles east of Dallas. It is the first significant East Texas stop as the interstate leaves the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, a position that has shaped its identity as both a small county seat and a regional destination. With a population of about 5,200, Canton is the largest city in Van Zandt County, though it remains a modest, small-town community by Texas standards. The city is best known nationally for First Monday Trade Days, a monthly outdoor market that has operated for more than a century and is billed as the world's largest flea market. Held the Thursday through Sunday before the first Monday of each month, the market fills a roughly 450-acre grounds and draws vendors and shoppers from across the region and beyond. The event is a defining economic and cultural force, giving Canton a rhythm that swells dramatically on market weekends and settles back to quiet county-seat life in between. Beyond the market, Canton functions as the governmental and civic center of Van Zandt County. The courthouse square, schools, churches, and local businesses anchor daily life, and the surrounding landscape of farms and woodlands gives the city a distinctly East Texas character. Canton ISD, a small district of about four schools, serves the community. Canton suits households drawn to small-town living with convenient interstate access — families tied to the local schools, residents who value a slower pace, and those who want country property on the city's outskirts while remaining about an hour from the Dallas–Fort Worth area.