Deport is a small city in northeastern Texas, lying across the boundary between Lamar County and Red River County, east of the Lamar County seat of Paris. The community sits on Mustang Creek, in the gently rolling farmland and pasture country of the region. Deport traces its origins to the late 1800s, when Colonel Dee Thompson settled on Mustang Creek, reportedly choosing the site so his horses would have a ready supply of water. A post office was established in 1883 and named Deport in Thompson's honor, giving the community its distinctive name. The town grew as a small agricultural trade center, serving the surrounding farms. By 1982 it supported a population of 722, with six churches, seventy stores, and a bank — evidence of its role as a local commercial hub. Agriculture, particularly cotton, long anchored the local economy, and the town served as a commercial center for a wide swath of eastern Lamar County. Mustang Creek, which drew the town's founder, still runs through the community, a small reminder of Deport's beginnings. In the decades since, Deport has settled into the pattern of a quiet rural town. The population was 746 in 1990 and 718 in 2000, before declining to 550 in the 2020 census, as smaller agricultural communities across the region have thinned. The town's small commercial core and surrounding farms retain the look of an older northeast Texas community. Today Deport is served by the Prairiland Independent School District, with Deport Elementary School located in the community. The town's identity is tied to its farming heritage and its founding story, and its combination of small-town quiet, agricultural surroundings, and easy access to Paris makes it a settled, comfortable place to live in northeast Texas.