Est. 1886

Clifton Chamber of Commerce

CULTUREBosque County is where culture abounds. From the newly restored Bosque Conservatory with performing arts and a permanent art collection to the Bosque Museum which houses the nationally acclaimed Horn Shelter which depicts ancient Texans at least 9,500 years ago. The heritage of Bosque County is pre-served by the Bosque County Historical Commission housed in the Bosque Collection.

RECREATIONExperience hunting, fi shing, golfi ng, bird watching, star gazing or just relaxing. Bosque County is a recreation destination with Meridian State Park, Lake Whitney, Bosque Valley Golf Course, the Central Texas Fairgrounds, Bosque Bottoms and the Paul J. Meyer Observatory.

EDUCATIONEducation in Bosque County is premium, with state-of-the-art K-12 facilities and distance learning campuses.

Live, Wor... in charming, beau

A great place t

HEALTH CAREFull-Service Hospital

OPPORTUNITYUrban fl ight to the county has created tremendous needs for city amenities in small towns and Bosque County has a great opportunity for all business owners.

FRIENDLYWhether you’re seeking a business opportunity, a quality of life for your family or an eventful day trip, come see us. View our hills, the best in Texas, visit our art galleries, antiques and col-lectible shops, and savor some of the local cuisine. You’ll be glad you did!

rk, Play ...utiful Bosque County – to come home to.

Meridian Chamber of Commerce

C U S TO M M A G A Z I N E M E D I A

www.epa.gov/greenvehicles.

Save Money. Smell the Flowers.

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FALLS

LIMESTONE

MCLENNAN

FREESTONE

BOSQUEHILL

Marlin

Hillsboro

Groesbeck

Fairfield

Meridian

Waco

Heart of Texas

Fairfield Industrial Development Corporation

Incentives for eligible Economic Development 4A Projects:

expenditures related to:

commercial projects

site improvements

Other potential incentives:

400 Acre Fairfield Industrial Park

THE PERFECTLOCATION

FAIRFIELDT E X A S

A nice place to spend the day, a week or forever!Fairfield, Texas is at the crossroads of Interstate 45 and Highway 84 on the edge of east Texas. Being conveniently located between Dallas and Houston, as well as between Tyler and Waco, Fairfield offers a rich country atmosphere while providing convenient access to Texas’ major metroplex regions.

Visiting Freestone County Museum, which is housed in an 1857 jail, will enlighten you on the rich history of our area. Cattle ranches, peach orchards, old oil derricks and country churches give storybook charm to our community. Whether exploring our history, or browsing in our antique shops you are sure to enjoy your visit in Fairfield.

When you’re ready to take a break we’ve got just the place to relax. Our many fine locally owned restaurants offer Mexican food, country buffet, a quaint little sandwich and java shop, and a down home coffee shop. If you are in a hurry you’ll find many well-known fast food spots as well.

Visit our Web site or give us a call and learn more about “the little town on your way”.

Fairfield Chamber of Commerce900 W. Commerce(903) 389-5792www.fairfieldtexaschamber.comchamber@fairfieldtx.com

At East Texas Medical Center Fairfield, we’re dedicated to offering your family the latest in medical services close to home. ETMC Fairfield is a full-service facility equipped with the following resources:

center, with ambulance and Air 1 helicopter services mammography and nuclear medicine

physicians and nurse practitioners

ETMC Fairfield is backed by the services of East Texas’ largest healthcare

based in Tyler. The ETMC system provides advanced levels of care to East Texans through the ETMC Cancer Institute, the ETMC Cardiovascular Institute,

trauma center, ETMC Tyler.

ith a new, $4 million building backing up its commitment, the Greater

Waco Chamber of Commerce has thrown down the revival gauntlet to the rest of downtown. And the challenge is being met, to the tune of $1 billion in overall investment.

Cha l lenge Greater Waco, t he c h a mb e r ’s s t r ate g ic e c onom ic development campaign, established revitalizing downtown as one of five goals. The ambitious plan calls for a 50 percent increase in downtown housing, retail, restaurant and office development by 2010, as well as groundbreaking on at least two new, large-scale developments.

Waco’s downtown is picking up momentum thanks to:

1. Waco Town Square, a $60 million, mixed-use project by SWB Heritage Square Partners LP on a 17-acre site that will include upscale retail, res-taurants, professional office space and residential living.

2. A $15 million renovation of the historic Roosevelt Hotel, which is being transformed into office space.

3. The Greater Waco Chamber’s new

headquarters, touted as the first “green” chamber facility in the country.

The unique, gold-domed chamber building includes a bevy of eco-friendly design features to back up the claim as it seeks to obtain LEED certification through the U.S. Green Building Council. It anchors a $75 million, mixed-use development, and is leading the way for other eco-friendly projects that also are going after LEED status.

But while the chamber’s new building has gotten a lot of attention for its environmental friendliness, it’s impor-tant not to let what’s happening in downtown Waco get overlooked, says James G. Vaughan Jr., president and chief executive officer of the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce.

“The vision we had was that we could make the downtown area important economically and as a symbol for the region,” Vaughan says. “Our location on the Brazos River makes this a special place, and the community has wanted to capitalize on that for a long time. With our new building, and everything else that’s happening, we’re f inally doing that.”

A major aspect of the visioning process was a re-examination of exactly what “downtown” means in terms of boundaries. When all’s said and done,

Waco’s urban center is likely to be much larger, but not sprawling and unconnected.

“Downtown won’t look like it did in its heyday of the 1940s and 1950s, and it won’t be exactly the same kind of retail center,” Vaughan explains. “When we’re talking about a billion-dollar facelift, that means we’ve got projects under way that are going to leverage other projects, and that will stretch what we’re able to do in terms of economic development.”

What will eventually take place, if all goes as planned, is that a “greater downtown” will form around the historic downtown area, allowing growth and expansion to head out in every direction. And that will be key for plans that call for a regional buy-in of this master growth plan.

“If the downtown is the symbol of a region, and it’s prosperous, people are going to get excited about it,” Vaughan says. “That has a positive effect on the whole marketplace, and that’s what we’re trying to do here. We’re going to be a magnet for and symbol of a ‘Greater Waco’ region, and we want the surrounding communities to be attracted to this as a kind of second hometown, a place to go instead of the larger metro cities outside our region.”

– Joe Morris

t’s said in Texas, everything is bigger. That’s certainly true for hospital expansions in the Heart of Texas, where two key providers are

in the midst of a major building boom.Hillcrest Health System is carving out a new

campus with a community hospital and an adjacent Women & Children’s hospital. Combined, the projects will cover 472,000 square feet of space and represent a $184 million investment.

Glenn Robinson, president and CEO of Hillcrest Health System, said that despite additions and renovations, the 88-year-old original facility

couldn’t keep up with technology advances, new structural requirements and patient access needs.

With a new hospital, patients will benefit from the latest technology, including a digitized diagnostic imaging center. The upgrade means patients will face less radiation exposure, need fewer repeat examinations and get quicker results. Wireless computers allow nurses to chart patient records at bedside. Elsewhere, better lighting systems and wireless Internet access will improve the patient experience.

The Women & Children’s hospital combines

HIGH-QUALITY CARE

Hillcrest Health System 3000 Herring Ave. Waco, Texas 76708 (254) 202-2000 www.hillcrest.net

Operates the 393-bed Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center. Also operates a network of Hillcrest Family Health Centers throughout the region.

Providence Healthcare Network 6901 Medical Parkway Waco, Texas 76712 (254) 751-4000 www.providence.net

Operates a 214-bed, acute-care Providence Health Center, as well as a psychiatric and substance abuse treatment center, an independent living and skilled nursing facility, and a network of local clinics.

the two departments into a single location, where delivery, women’s services and pediatrics will take place.

Construction began in December 2006 and should be completed in May 2009, along with two medical office buildings to house an outpatient surgery and imaging center.

Hillcrest announced in May 2008 that it had signed a memorandum of understanding that is expected to lead to an affiliation agreement with Scott & White Healthcare. The agreement will lead to a partnership between Hillcrest and SWH to operate Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center.

Scott & White operates a 636-bed hospital and clinic in Temple, Texas, as well as an acute-care hospital in Round Rock and more than 20 outpatient clinics throughout Central Texas, including four in the Waco area. Scott & White is the principal clinical teaching facility affiliated with the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine.

Nearby, Providence Healthcare Network kicked off a $48.5 million expansion to accommodate more people using the hospital. Completed last year, the moves were needed because of a rapidly growing population.

Jonathan Ford, vice president of marketing, said Providence’s service area grew by 9.1 percent between 2000 and 2005 and will match that again by the decade’s end. The emergency department that was designed for 30,000 visits per year was seeing 50,000 patients.

At the base of the hospital, the emergency department doubled in size to 50 beds. In a new five-story tower, operating suites, intensive care beds and labor/delivery beds were added. The ICU nearly doubled to 30 beds, and the surgery department – whose nine operating suites had a utilization rate of more than 80 percent – added six more suites with an additional suite devoted to cystoscopy, a procedure that

allows doctors to examine the bladder and urethra. As part of this expansion, pulmonary and respiratory, radiology, rehab-ilitation, nutrition and other departments were given additional space. In all, 162,000 square feet of space was added and 67,000 square feet was renovated without compromising patient care or volumes.

“This was a dream from the beginning – to create the space needed to meet the market demand without compro-mising patient care. To be able to accomplish this dream in such a seamless fashion is just icing on the cake,” Ford said. – Roy Moore

wo short years ago, the Waco Veterans Administration Medical Center was on the doorstep of

being closed.The U.S. Department of Veterans

Affairs was conducting a nationwide effort to improve efficiency, and the Waco VA was on the chopping block.

But on the eve of the hospital’s 75th anniversary, a decision was made to revitalize the campus as a leader of health care for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Waco facility is now designated a Center of Excellence for Mental Health.

“Congressional representatives remain actively interested in planning for the future operations and services provided in the hospital,” says VA spokesperson Nelia Schrum.

Congress approved nearly $50 million for construction and renovation projects at the hospital, including a rehabilitation center for blind veterans and various infrastructure improvements.

The 346-bed hospital provides inpatient psychiatric care and nursing home care to psycho-geriatric patients.

A primary focus of the center is the research and treatment of post-trau-matic stress disorder. The VA partners with the Texas A&M University System’s

Health Science Center, Scott & White Healthcare and regional institutions to study and address the condition among returning veterans.

The world’s most powerful portable MRI, which the center unveiled in mid-2007, will be used to study pre- and post-deployment troops in an effort to understand susceptibility to post-traumatic stress disorder and resilience

to stress. The MRI will also be used to study traumatic brain injuries.

“Currently, there is very limited MRI access to troops immediately before and after deployment,” Schrum says. “Research results should provide valuable insight for researchers in understanding why some troops are more susceptible to post-traumatic stress disorder and others are not.” – Michaela Jackson

Groesbeck ISD has modern, state-of-the-art facilities and equipment to enable its students to be successful in the world of today and the future.

GroesbeckOPPORTUNITY BEGINS WITH EDUCATION

– Houston, Dallas and Austin. Trouble-free access to

spirit that welcomes enterprise make Groesbeck an excellent place to operate your business.

Land – Water – Power – People – employment needs

system and low crime rate make Groesbeck the ideal location for your business.

locate to Groesbeck.

SuccessAWAITS IN GROESBECK

Excellent medical facilities areavailable in Groesbeck:

The only hospital in Texas to offer Wellness Environments Rooms.

If you have to stay in a hospital, make it Limestone Medical Center in Groesbeck, Texas. Our new state-of-the-art facility offers Wellness Environments Patient Rooms that are “Five-Star Hotel Beautiful”. These rooms are designed to help the patient relax as they heal in a serene environment.

Come stay with us.

A NEW VISION IN HEALTH CARE

LIMESTONE MEDICAL CENTER

s the energy sector in Texas booms, well-trained workers for it and related industry

clusters are at a premium.Enter Texas State Technical College

Waco, which is earning national rankings for its computer and information science, mechanics and repair, transportation pilot and engineering programs.

The college offers more than 100 associate degree programs, as well as certificate programs for those looking to augment skills already in place.

The ability to anticipate the region’s economic development picture and add to or create programs to meet those needs has been key to TSTC’s success, says Jan Osburn, director of marketing and communications.

The need is so great in many speci-alties, such as welding, auto repair and air conditioning, that companies often hire students before graduation, she says.

According to Innovate America, U.S. Council on Competitiveness, the number of jobs requiring technical training is growing at five times the rate of other occupations.

The American Welding Society estimates that more than half of the industry’s highly trained workforce is nearing retirement, creating a poten-tial shortage of more than 200,000 skilled welders by 2010.

“Many industries are on the brink of an employment crisis,” Osburn says.

TSTC already has laid the ground-work for multi-company partnerships with employers such as Caterpillar, CORD Inc., Toyota, John Deere, Zyvex Corp., L-3 Communications and the Texas Recreational Vehicle Association.

Course curriculum is developed in conjunction with more than 700 industry advisory members, ensuring that TSTC graduates have the technical education and skills needed for today’s technical workplace, Osburn says.

Through hands-on instruction and utilization of industry-standard equip-

ment, Osburn says, TSTC helps prepare technicians for careers in agriculture, information technology, telecom muni-cations, engineering, manufacturing, health and transportation, among others.

International giants such as Bechtel and Fluor come back to the college year after year to hire TSTC students.

The school is delving into emerging technical programs such as fuel-cell technology, home-technology inte-gration and nanotechnology.

“TSTC students are in high demand,” Osburn says. – Joe Morris

hey don’t call it “The Heart of Texas” for nothing.An estimated 40 million people live within 500

miles of Waco. Austin and Dallas are each 100 miles away. San Antonio is 160 miles and Houston and its port facilities 180 miles from the region.

The location, plus solid north-south access along Interstate 35 and local governments’ willingness to bring rail lines into their industrial parks, is making the area a hotbed for distribution and logistics centers.

Coca-Cola is building a 60,000-square-foot distribution center in Waco. Tractor Supply Co. more than doubled the size of its existing facility in the region off I-35. Caterpillar Logistics Services Inc. broke ground in April 2008 on a 700,000-square-foot parts distribution center that will start with 140 to 180 employees.

“Caterpillar continually evaluates its parts distribution network, and the most recent distribution study identified the area as a strategic location for its proximity to suppliers and transportation networks,” says Liva Vosekalna-Marek, a Caterpillar spokeswoman. “Caterpillar has 95 acres and we plan to initially occupy 70 of those acres.”

In August 2008, Associated Hygiene Products LLC announced plans to build a 250,000 square-foot facility to make and distribute disposable diapers in Waco; it has additional land in the Texas Central Parkway to expand. The company says it will initially hire 117 workers.

In McGregor, Ferguson Plumbing invested $17 million in a 350,000-square-foot distribution center. RTLC Wind Industries Inc. built a plant to manufacture towers for wind turbines, and an ethanol plant is negotiating with the

McGregor Economic Development Corp. to locate in the city’s industrial park, too.

The later two projects were dependent on rail access. So the city, with the help of some grants, is putting in rail lines.

“We’ve been turning down companies because we don’t have rail,” says Leo Connor, executive director of the McGregor Economic Development Corp. “We used to have rail into the park and then tore it up, and the bed is still there, the right of way is still there, but it needs to be beefed up.”

About $200 million in potential capital investment is in the offing once the park, a 15-square mile former Naval Weapons Reserve plant, gets hooked up to the existing rail network, Connor says.

Companies see the Heart of Texas as a hospitable spot with a bright future.

“We know it will grow. We like the proximity to the Houston and San Antonio and Dallas-Fort Worth markets,” says Les Gardner, vice president of logistics for Tractor Supply Co. “It is a really solid place for us to be from a transporta-tion perspective, and we’ve got great customers and a great employee base.”

Tractor Supply is a one-stop spot for recreational farmers and ranchers as well as small business owners and tradesmen. Since 2005 it has increased the number of stores in Texas by 40 percent, to 108 as of June 2008. The Waco center will get product to stores in New Mexico, Arkansas and Louisiana as well as Texas. “We just made a significant investment and are really excited about the possibility to build more stores in Texas,” Gardner says.

– Pamela Coyle

2700 La Salle Ave.Waco, TX 76706

(254) 537-0413www.wacocomfortsuites.com

Enjoy the “Suite Life” at the 100% non-smoking Comfort Suites® hotel of Waco.

Located at Waco’s landmark traffi c circle near I-35, the hotel sits directly across from a variety of restaurants that include some of Texas’ favorite cuisines, steak, bar-b-q, tex-mex as well as the Waco Elite Grille, which was frequented by none other than Elvis Presley.

A wealth of amenities await you at this all-suite hotel. Relax and catch some sun at our outdoor pool and spa. Reinvigorate yourself after a long day by utilizing our fi tness center. Stay productive and keep in touch with the offi ce or with loved ones through free high-speed Internet access. Most importantly, sink into luxury on our Serta Perfect Sleeper queen and king beds. Each morning, wake up to the smell and taste of delicious Belgian waffl es, eggs and fresh fruit as a hearty part of our Savory Starts Breakfast buffet.

n any afternoon in the Heart of Texas, it isn’t hard to find outdoor enthusiasts breezing along on a boat or getting their heart rate up on a riverside trail.

“There’s a little bit of a lot of different activities for people to do their own thing,” says Rusty Black, director of Waco Parks and Recreation.

Bass fishing, golfing and bike trails are among the region’s most consistent draws for out-of-towners and residents alike.

Cameron Park, an expanse of nearly 600 acres stretching along the Bosque and Brazos rivers, is a focal point of Waco’s outdoor recreation scene. Visitors to the park not only enjoy greenways for walking and riding, but also scenic overlooks, nature observation areas, the Cameron Park Zoo, historical sites and river access.

“I could go on and on about Cameron Park,” says Susan Morton, tourism sales manager at the Waco Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It is such a unique park with something for everyone. You can just relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery or be as active as you want to be.”

A weekend rarely goes by that the city doesn’t get inquiries about Cameron Park’s renowned bike trails from riding enthusiasts in Austin or Dallas, says Black. A recent national biking magazine featured one trail from each state, and the Cameron Park trails represented all of Texas.

“They’re probably one of the biggest attractions in the park

system that bring folks from out of town,” Black says.Summers in the Heart of Texas can be rather toasty, but

that’s no reason to sit inside. Lakes Whitney, Limestone and Waco each offer a variety

of cool activities, including swimming, kayaking, fishing and camping. Birdwatchers and nature enthusiasts enjoy the Lake Waco Wetlands, which feature a 6-acre nursery that is home to water lilies, bulrush, duck potato and a variety of other aquatic plants. Within the nature area, the local Audubon Society has documented more than 130 species of birds.

Another attractive recreation activity is nearby Fort Parker State Park and Confederate Reunion Grounds in Mexia, a 1,500-acre complex that includes oak woodlands and Fort Parker Lake.

In the Heart of Texas, the outdoors isn’t a place you pass between buildings and cars: it’s a destination all its own.

“I love the scenery and climate for the same reasons I love being a Texan,” Morton says. “Go in any direction and you will see something completely different.

“If you head in one direction, you see the beautiful rivers and lakes with amazing cliff views. Head the other direction and you will find prairie land. The hardest part about playing outside here is knowing which direction to set out in first.”

– Michaela Jackson

he Mayborn Museum on the campus of Baylor University in Waco is a 143,000-square-foot

complex that is bursting with exhibits that range from Indian dwellings to simple machines.

Discovery Rooms in 16 varieties are geared toward hands-on learning for the entire family.

The museum grounds also feature a 13-acre historic village accurately depicting late 19th-century and early 20th-century life in Texas, right down to blacksmith shop and general store.

The museum offers residents in the Heart of Texas a learning environment in which families can engage, explore and enjoy, says Sarah Levine, director of marketing and community relations for the museum.

The museum opened in 2004, bring-ing together collections that have been housed in various venues in the area,

some dating to the 1850s. “So although we are new, we have

been around for a long, long time,” Levine says.

The museum also acts as a venue for traveling exhibits, exposing the community to everything from rare jewels to the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci.

Every exhibit in Mayborn is engi-neered to inspire genuine curiosity about the world. The goal of the museum, according to Levine, is not to teach, but to expose children and adults to concepts and stories so that they are inspired to discover for themselves.

“Often the most impactful experi-ences are not taught or foreseen,” she says. “The museum tries to create an atmosphere where those great ‘Aha’ moments can occur or where people of all ages can just have fun.”

– Michaela Jackson

Kosse, Texas-based company is taking advantage of booming interest in alternative energy

with a new subsidiary in McGregor in McLennan County that is building towers for wind turbines.

RTLC Wind Industries Inc. built its 180,000-square-foot plant on 150 acres it bought in the city’s industrial park.

Demand for wind towers has been exceeding supply, and major turbine makers reached out to RTLC before the building was finished, says Tim O’Neil, the company’s special projects manager.

“The plant will have a capacity of 200 to 400 towers a year, depending on their size,” he says.

The company won’t have trouble finding buyers. The American Wind Energy Association says the United States is now the world’s largest market for new wind-power installations.

“Clearly, there is strong demand and potential for wind power here in the U.S. There are also tremendous pressures and challenges on the supply chain, both to keep up with demand and to produce the equipment in a country where there still is no stable policy commitment to support wind-power development,” says

association spokesman Christine Real de Azua.

Parent company RTLC Industries Inc. knows a bit about big metal pipes. Since 1995, it has been supplying large-diameter piping for irrigation, water, sewer and pumping systems, including replacement pipes for pumping stations in New Orleans damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

RTLC broke ground on the new $10 million facility in August 2008.

For the wind towers, RTLC will bring in flat plate steel and roll it into sections of 80 to 90 feet each, O’Neil says. Each tower will have three to four sections.

Texas already is home to huge wind fields in the Sweetwater area, and the McGregor site provides easy access to them along U.S. Highway 84, O’Neil says.

The region has a solid pool of qual-ified workers, he says, plus the McGregor Industrial Park, more than 9,500 acres on a former Naval Weapons Reserve plant, also will have rail access.

The city agreed to put in rail lines as part of its negotiations with RTLC, says Leo Conner, director of the McGregor Economic Development Corp. “To not put rail into a 15-square-mile industrial park did not make sense,” he says.

McGregor also sold the land to RTLC at a discount, based on the number of expected jobs. The f irst phase, scheduled to go online in January 2009, will create about 80 jobs, including welders, fitters, computer operators, accountants and office staff. The com-pany plans to expand, with a goal of producing 800 towers a year.

“Wind could produce 20 percent of U.S. electricity by 2030, up from 1 percent today,” says de Azua of the wind energy association.

– Pamela Coyle

he Waco Convention Center is receiving a $17.5 million over-haul that will take the facility

to the next level.Built in 1971 and expanded in 1988,

the facility with 119,000 square feet of exhibit space sits in downtown Waco alongside the Brazos River.

A mong its a menit ies a re a 32,000-square-foot meeting hall, two

15,000-square-foot ballrooms and the ability to divide into 18 smaller rooms.

When the current round of renovations is completed sometime in mid-2010, the center will have added another 25,000 square feet of pre-function and meeting space, improved technology, enhanced and expanded catering and back-of-house capabilities and, perhaps most importantly, modernized the interior

and exterior to offer new and better views of the river and downtown.

“The current building is 40 years old, and while it is adequate for many of our customers, it is aging and we all know that ‘new’ is what people desire,” says Elizabeth A. Taylor, director of the Waco Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Plus, newer technology is what customers are expecting now in their meeting-venue choices, and we need to do some work on this facility to be able to offer what our clients want.

“Waco enjoys a strong position in the meetings and convention market and is very competitive among our peer cities,” she continues. “However, with new buildings being built in various markets around Texas and beyond and with other buildings either expanding or renovating, we knew Waco would need to do something to remain as competitive as possible.”

The renovations are being funded through a voter-approved municipal bond, the first of its type in 40 years.

A feasibility study prior to the project’s starts collected input from customers, local hoteliers, CVB staff and Waco citizens. Customers and

citizens provided input on how they use the building – what works with the current config uration and what they would like to see improved or added.

“The feasibility study considered the size of the building as well as the marketplace and the potential to attract new business with or without this project,” Taylor says.

The project is already making an impact, Taylor says. “We are already

talking with clients who would not consider Waco prior to the project because of some of our limitations and getting very positive responses. This project will help us be more competitive and will certainly give us a renewed sense of appeal to customers. We will be out in the marketplace working to fill up the meeting space and hotel space to bring in more business for Waco.”

– Joe Morris

ant to experience seven different vegetation zones in Texas, but pressed for time? Drop by the Cameron Park Zoo, where the Brazos River

Country display takes you on the river from its origins in New Mexico down to the Gulf of Mexico, incorporating 120 species of wildlife and some cultural history along the way.

While this is the signature exhibit, it’s by no means the only showstopper on the zoo’s 52-acre site within the larger Cameron Park. Since it reopened in its new digs in 1993, the zoo has been creating displays featuring animals from around the world, including a herpetarium containing reptiles, amphibians and fish from around the world. A play area, African lion display and South American section are other stops along the tour, as is Lemur Island.

The zoo’s efforts in conservation and unique presentation haven’t gone unnoticed: it’s a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, one of only 52 zoos in the United States to belong, and one of the smallest.

And if Jim Fleshman, the zoo director, has anything to say about it, the already-deserving facility will soon reap even more honors.

“The biggest draw we have is Brazos River Country, which is just amazing,” Fleshman says. “When they walk inside a ship and see a 50,000-gallon coral reef, that’s kind of cool. But we’ve also been extremely progressive over the last 15 years, continuing to add to our exhibits and take a conservation message to the public. Having that there for them to get involved with, along with seeing a new exhibit, really makes a huge difference.”

Next up: Mysteries of the Asian forest, an exterior display featuring orangutans and komodo dragons. It’s set to open in summer 2009.

“We’re playing a little bit off The Jungle Book with that, taking people on a boardwalk through the trees, and then into an Angkor Wat-style ruined temple where they can view the dragons. It’s going to be pretty slick.”

– Joe Morris

Everyday moments can be learningmoments with your kids. For more tips, visit bornlearning.org.

I spysomethinggreen.