Often people are quite surprised to learn just how far back Pottsboro’s history actually goes. Local lands originally roamed by Native Americans were eventually settled via the establishment of the north/south Shawnee Trail, which also became one of the great cattle-drive trails between Texas, Missouri and Kansas. Our modern day Highway 289 roughly follows this original route. We’d like to share just a bit more of our colorful history with these interesting facts:

1876-A rancher in the northern part of Grayson County by the name of J.A. Potts established Pottsboro on his own land. He also donated the right-of-way so that the Mssouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad could extend westward from Denison.

1884-While digging for coal on land that is now under Lake Texoma, an artesian well that shot up more than 8 feet into the air was discovered. The “Flowing Well”, as it was dubbed, supplied water to hundreds of local people for many years. The water was declared by Texas’ State Testing Lab to be the second purest water in the world. That very spring still flows today.

1891-With the establishment of our first post office, the town’s name was shortened from the original “Pottsborough” to its current “Pottsboro”. Boy, are we glad!

1938-The Denison Dam Project began and was built primarily by German POW labor housed in camps located around what would eventually become Lake Texoma.

1941-The U.S. Army Air Corp established Perrin Field just outside of Pottsboro as a basic flight training school. Nearly 10,000 airmen trained there during World War II. Closed after the war, it was reactivated in 1948 for the Cold War and was used to train jet interceptor pilots for the Korean Conflict.

1944- Denison Dam , a 3-mile long structure holding 89,000 acres of water, was completed and Lake Texoma was formed.

1952- Perrin Field became a permanent installation, designated as Perrin Air Force Base.

1964-U.S. Air Defense Command’s only F -102 training base was established at Perrin and held the world’s largest fleet of F-102 jets. The Air Defense Command’s Life Support School was opened on Lake Texoma and among the thousands of airmen trained there, 49 were America’s first astronauts.

1971-Perrin Air Force Base became Grayson County Airport.

1975-Students from the area’s beautiful and historic Austin College (est. 1876) excavated a huge prehistoric mammoth near Flowing Wells on Lake Texoma, and were able to recover 50% of the giant skeleton.

2004-The City of Pottsboro and the Pottsboro Area Chamber of Commerce worked together to establish Pottsboro’s first official Tourist Information Office.

2006-Community members and regional partners gathered to participate in a Destination by Design event to document the vision for Pottsboro in 2026. This is an ongoing project with three active work groups; Land Use, Quality of Life and Funding.

2007-The City of Pottsboro, the Pottsboro Area Chamber of Commerce and the Pottsboro Community Development Corporation worked together to develop a new city tag line and logo. The new logo and tag line now appear on stationery, signs, flags and various new marketing and promotional materials.

2008-The City of Pottsboro completed construction of a 12” water transmission line that will provide additional water capacity on the north side of Pottsboro.

2009-The long awaited completion of the extension of SH 289 occurred when, in December, traffic was first allowed to use the new roadway between Southmayd and Pottsboro. Citizens of Dallas now have a direct travel route to the City of Pottsboro and Lake Texoma.