Conroe, Texas
Conroe is the seat of Montgomery County and falls within Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. It is about 40 miles (64 km) north of Houston.
As of July 2012, the city population was 61,533, up from 36,811 in 2000.
History
The city is named after Northern-born Union Cavalry officer and Houston lumberman Isaac Conroe. Conroe founded a sawmill there in 1881. The city originally gained in wealth due to the lumber and oil industries. Originally named "Conroe's Switch", the area saw an influx of residents in the late 19th century due to the lumber demands on the piney wood forest of the area.
During the 1930s, because of oil profits, the city boasted more millionaires per capita than any other U.S. city, though only briefly. Elvis Presley performed at the high school football field on August 24, 1955.
After the construction of Interstate 45, many Houstonians began to settle communities around Conroe.
Within the first decade of the 21st century the city attracted a great deal of new residents from the Houston area. Renée C. Lee said that Conroe around 2002 was "a sleepy, backwater town 40 miles north of Houston" and that at the time, Conroe city officials needed to use financial incentives to attract home developers to Conroe. Lee said that for a three-year period ending in 2007, Conroe became a hotbed of construction of new houses.