The recently completed six-screen, all-stadium seat, state-of-the-art digital Starplex Cinema 6 and the new, 110,000 sq.ft. Lowe's Home Improvement store that opened just this month; the Factory Stores of America outlet mall and Wal*Mart Supercenter are more good reasons why Sulphur Springs has become a major retail trade zone drawing from an area of approximately 60,000 to 70,000 potential shoppers.

Welcome to Sulphur Springs..Where people still say "please and thank you"

Sulphur Springs is the home of the "Texas State Champion Homemade Ice Cream Freezeoff" held, each year, the second Saturday in June, has been featured on the Food Network's "All American Festivals" segment. The freezeoff is held in connection with the annual Hopkins County Dairy Festival and Hot Air Balloon rally (our 45th year). The "World Champion Hopkins County Stew Contest" (our 34th year) has also been featured on the "All American Festivals". The Stew contest is held on the third Saturday in September as part of the annual Hopkins County Fall Festival. Another event during the Fall Festival is the annual "Fly-In" at the local airport. Over 250 private planes, experimental aircraft and military aircraft usually attend this event.

Sulphur Springs is the home of the Southwest Dairy Center and Museum, which is supported by dairy farmers from six states, the Leo St. Clair Music Box Museum, a collection of over 150 unique and rare music boxes and the Hopkins County Museum and Heritage Park, a collection of historic buildings rescued from our distant and not so distant past.

Agriculturally, Hopkins County has been the "official" Dairy Capitol of Texas for over fifty years, having over 600 grade A dairies in years past. However, the dairy industry has been on the decline the past few years and our dairy numbers have declined to 160 county-wide. Those remaining dairies, however, have grown with the times and have positioned themselves to compete in today's marketplace. There have been several new startup dairies in the past few months, signaling what we hope is the return to dairying prosperity in Hopkins County.

The beef cattle business has, at the same time, escalated, due to some innovations, which were initiated by local agribusinessmen and the Hopkins County Chamber of Commerce. An organization of agribusiness leaders calling themselves the "North East Texas Beef Improvement Organization" (N.E.T.B.I.O.) formed, by the Chamber six years ago to improve the quality of beef calves produced in the North East Texas area, by setting up requirements and qualifications to be met by producers so that these "preconditioned" calves could attract feedlot buyers from the Midwest, willing to pay premium prices for the calves. Calves sold at these special sales commonly bring $8 to $10 per hundredweight more than standard non-preconditioned calves at the regular sales. As a result, the N.E.T.B.I.O. organization has been copied by other organizations in other parts of the country.

Another area of agricultural pursuit being addressed by the Chamber of Commerce and the local Extension Agency is in the equine area. We, in Hopkins County, have been marketing ourselves to serious equine breeders across the country, encouraging them to locate in Hopkins County and North East Texas with their breeding operations. Events such as the seminar sponsored by Mary Bonham's Rafter L Ranch and the Hopkins County Chamber of Commerce which featured the leading thoroughbred trainer in the world, D. Wayne Lukas, put us on the map in thoroughbred circles, and the resulting publicity in the "Bloodhorse" magazine, "Texas Thoroughbred" and the "Racing Form" has already brought several new breeders to our community. Equine breeders have discovered that our soil, our central location, weather which allows training 12 months of the year, existing facilities and our existing "equine mentality" are aligned with their needs and are bringing this expanding agricultural activity to North East Texas in a big way!

There are seven school districts in the Hopkins County community. Six smaller rural districts include Como-Pickton CISD, Miller Grove ISD, Cumby ISD, North Hopkins ISD, Sulphur Bluff ISD and Saltillo ISD. All of these are rated "recognized" or above by the Texas Education Agency.

Sulphur Springs Independent School District is a class 4A sized, school district, accredited by Texas Education Agency and for the past 22 years, Sulphur Springs High School has dominated the region's University Interscholastic League academic competitions, having won district for the past 22 years straight and regional competitions eight of the past ten years. Sulphur Springs won the State Academic title in 4A in 1999! Our middle school "Odyssey of the Mind" (now called "Destination Imagination" ) competitors have won state competitions several times and, this year, our "DI" ESL (English as a second language) competitors won state..the first ESL team ever, to advance to world competition!

The Sulphur Springs Center of Paris Junior College is located adjacent to Sulphur Springs High School and allows High School Junior and Senior students the ability to take concurrent college classes while in high school. Many of our students have 12 hours or more of college credit upon graduation from high school. Vocational and continuing education classes are offered by the Center to local residents along with a two-year "Associates Degree" program. Classes are offered during the day and at night as well. Texas A & M University, Commerce, htttp://www7.tamu-commerce.edu/ just 15 minutes away, and a member of the A&M family of un iversities, provides traditional and non-traditional learning opportunities through existing and new programs which set high expectations and goals for students and staff. The University promotes a sense of community through a nurturing environment for all individuals in order to maximize learning, career and personal development.

Texas A & M University, Commerce, http://www.tamu-commerce.edu just 15 minutes away, and a member of the A&M family of universities, provides traditional and non-traditional learning opportunities through existing and new programs which set high expectations and goals for students and staff. The University promotes a sense of community through a nurturing environment for all individuals in order to maximize learning, career and personal development.