Sherman, TX

Two different parts of the semiconductor supply chain began operating new Sherman plants in 2025. GlobalWafers opened its fully integrated 300-millimeter silicon-wafer facility in May, producing the substrate used by chip manufacturers. In December, Texas Instruments started production at SM1, the first of as many as four connected fabrication plants in a potential $40 billion Sherman investment; that plant turns wafers into analog and embedded-processing chips. The projects arrived during rapid population growth: Sherman increased from 43,645 residents in the 2020 census to an estimated 52,417 in July 2025. The Grayson County seat has a much older civic core. County commissioners founded it in 1846, moved the settlement to its present site in 1848 after the first location lacked water and wood, and laid streets around a public square. Austin College relocated from Huntsville in 1876 and remains near downtown, preserving an educational role that once earned Sherman the nickname “Athens of Texas.”

Downtown still uses that civic center while recreation extends west. The city revived its Main Street program in 2016, and its recurring schedule includes Hot Summer Nights concerts, Arts Fest, a Hispanic Heritage Festival, and the Snowflake Festival and parade. Sherman Public Library on North Travis Street opens six days a week. Alongside its local-history and digital collections, its Workshop makerspace holds public classes on equipment such as the laser engraver; the July 2026 calendar also included book clubs, teen drop-in hours, story programs, and family films. West of the center, 83-acre Herman Baker Park wraps around roughly 34-acre Pickens Lake, with fishing, picnic space, kayak rentals, and a natural trail loop of about 1.5 miles. Nearby Binkley Park adds a ten-mile volunteer-built mountain-bike system with three ability levels, plus a shorter walking path and pavilion.