Visitors to Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary in McKinney, Texas will be able to let their imagination run wild as they travel back in time with life-size animatronic dinosaurs along a half-mile nature trail. From September 1, 2018 through February 18, 2019, during the 13th Annual Dinosaurs Live! Life-Size Animatronic Dinosaurs exhibit, ten moving and roaring dinosaurs provide visitors with a captivating experience. This exhibit will also offer interesting facts about both herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs. photo by Kathy Carter

Sales tax receipts for Fannin County were up almost 18% over this timeframe last year, while sales tax revenue for Bonham was up 9%.

No one knows precisely when or how the first humans set foot in the Americas, but archaeologists generally agree that the first Americans walked across a land bridge connecting Siberia to Alaska during an ice age some 25,000 years ago. Not surprisingly, water factored strongly in where these paleo-Americans camped or settled. The oldest evidence of humans in Texas dates back to about 15,500 years ago at Buttermilk Creek near present-day Salado. It was not an accident that paleo-Americans settled there: perennial springflow provided a solid (actually liquid!) foundation upon which to establish a thriving community.

Visitors to Black Canyon of the Gunnison still echo the same sentiments offered in 1882 by H.C. Wright, a member of a railroad survey crew that stumbled upon this stunning and remote canyon. "Hereto was unfolded view after view the most wonderful, the most thrilling of rock exposures, one vanishing from view only to be replaced by another still more imposing," wrote Mr. Wright.

As a $17.5 million restoration of the historic Fannin County Courthouse gets underway, a wave of economic development is gaining momentum in Bonham. New housing starts are up dramatically and the local Wal-Mart is planning a million-dollar renovation that will include a drive-by kiosk so busy shoppers can pick up groceries without ever leaving their car.

1902 – Willis Carrier creates the first air conditioner in Buffalo, New York. Willis Haviland Carrier (November 26, 1876 – October 7, 1950) was an American engineer, best known for inventing modern air conditioning. Carrier invented the first electrical air conditioning unit in 1902. In 1915, he founded Carrier Corporation, a company specializing in the manufacture and distribution of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.