With the onset of the Depression, farming in the county declined. Cotton had replaced wheat as the major crop immediately after the Civil War, but production fell due to New Deal regulations. The tomato industry became important to the county and grew rapidly after its beginnings at Craft in 1897 until its collapse in the 1950's. Since then, Cherokee County agriculture has centered on cattle and timber. The nursery industry dates from the 1880s and is of increasing importance in the New Summerfield-Reklaw area.
Some truck farming still exists, and dairies remain significant.
Since World War II, industry has led the private sector of the economy, with Jacksonville the industrial and commercial hub of the county. Tourism is of growing importance, spurred by the establishment in 1971 of the Texas State Railroad State Historical Park, used as a site for the filming of several motion pictures. The last passenger train ran in the late 1960s, and in the early 1980s the Southern Pacific and the Cotton Belt stopped all service south of Rusk, signaling the end of an era. Only a few scattered historical markers, cemeteries, or a lone country store still bear testimony to the existence of these once thriving communities. The Lone Star Defenders .