This book tells the story of The Woodlands, one of the most successful master-planned communities in the United States. Built from the ground up near Houston, beginning in the 1960s, The Woodlands is not just another suburban housing development. It is a new ￯﾿ﾽhometown￯﾿ﾽ where people live, work, shop, and become involved in their community in a way not often seen in modern-day America.   Told as a first-person series of reminiscences by an insider directly involved in The Woodlands￯﾿ﾽ development, this book takes you ￯﾿ﾽbehind the scenes￯﾿ﾽ and tells you the stories of the people who were instrumental in building the community and of the challenges they faced. It provides a little-known account of how they wrangled with governments and school districts, dealt with near bankruptcy, figured out what worked and what didn￯﾿ﾽt, and influenced and changed the decisions of the planners and developers along the way.   A novel concept for its time, The Woodlands was born from the vision of George Mitchell, a self-made oil and gas tycoon, who turned to real estate development to diversify his business, and the federal government￯﾿ﾽs experiment in support of the development of new suburban towns that would attract people from problem-plagued cities.   Brought back from the brink of financial disaster in its formative years, The Woodlands grew into a healthy adulthood and a solid business success. Today, The Woodlands is home to over 75,000 residents and 3,000 employers, and it is still growing. What makes it a real hometown is not just where people sleep at night, but where and how they spend the rest of the day: The Woodlands community has won international acclaim for its successful mix of commercial, retail, and residential components; its ability to attract and sustain jobs; and for its protection of the natural environment.