Canton: First Monday and the World's Oldest Flea Market

Canton, the Van Zandt County seat, has hosted a trading event every first Monday of the month since the eighteen fifties, when a circuit judge held court here on that day and settlers came to town to do business on the courthouse square. Horses were the main trade good for decades. By the nineteen forties the crowd had shifted to hog and dog trading, earning the gathering the local nickname Dog Monday.

Today First Monday Trade Days is the oldest and largest continually operating outdoor flea market in the United States. It draws up to one hundred thousand shoppers to more than four hundred acres of covered and open-air vendor space, with more than five thousand sellers offering everything from antiques to livestock. The event actually runs the full weekend before the first Monday, which means Canton turns into one of the busiest commercial gatherings in Texas eleven times a year.