Huntsville is a city in and the county seat of Walker County, Texas, United States. The population was 35,078 at the 2000 census. It is the center of the Huntsville micropolitan area. Huntsville is located in the East Texas Piney Woods on the Interstate 45 corridor between Houston and Dallas. Huntsville is home to Sam Houston State University, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Huntsville State Park, the HEARTS Veterans Museum of Texas located inside West Hill Mall, and the Texas Prison Museum. It also served as the residence of Sam Houston (the noted Texas general, elected leader, and statesman), who is recognized in Huntsville by the Sam Houston Memorial Museum and also by an enormous statue on Interstate 45. Huntsville has offices of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which also has offices in Austin. The Huntsville Prison, also known as the "Walls Unit" due to the large, imposing walls surrounding the facility, houses the state's execution chamber. Due to escapes from the prison, the male death row was relocated to the Polunsky Unit near Livingston, Texas; the female death row is located at the Mountain View Unit near Gatesville, Texas. In reference to its prison, "Huntsville" is the title and subject of a country music song by Merle Haggard, on the album Someday We'll Look Back.