Sherman, Texas map
33.64° N · 96.61° W · Grayson County seat · elev. ~745 ft · Central Time
Sherman is the seat of Grayson County and the southern half of the Sherman–Denison pair that sits between the north end of the Dallas–Fort Worth build-out and the Red River. It is an old college town — Austin College moved here in 1876 — that has spent the last few years turning into a semiconductor town.
Centered on downtown Sherman. US-75 runs north–south through the city; Denison and Lake Texoma are up the highway to the north.
Where Sherman is in Texas
Sherman is on US-75 about 65 miles north of Dallas, 30 miles north of McKinney and 10 miles south of Denison. The Red River and the Oklahoma line are about 15 miles north; US-75 crosses at Colbert and runs on to Durant. That position — one straight highway to the Metroplex, one river crossing to Oklahoma — is why the Sherman–Denison metropolitan area is treated as its own MSA while also being counted inside the wider Dallas–Fort Worth combined statistical area.
Grayson County covers 979 square miles, 46 of them water, and had 135,543 people in 2020. It was founded in 1846 and named for Peter W. Grayson, attorney general of the Republic. Fannin County is east, Collin County south, Denton southwest and Cooke west; Bryan, Marshall and Love counties, Oklahoma, are across the river.
Lake Texoma and the Red River
Denison Dam, finished in 1944, backs the Red River up into Lake Texoma, one of the largest reservoirs in the country and the dominant feature of the northern county. SH-91 runs from Sherman straight to the dam; SH-289 goes north to Pottsboro and out onto the Preston peninsula. The lake's Big Mineral arm holds Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, a marsh and grassland reserve on the Texas side that draws large numbers of wintering geese and cranes. Eisenhower State Park sits on the shoreline near the dam, next to the town where Dwight Eisenhower was born in 1890.
The college and the fabs
Austin College occupies a campus just north of downtown. Chartered in 1849 at Huntsville and relocated to Sherman in 1876, it is the oldest institution of higher learning in Texas operating continuously under its original charter. Grayson College, the county's community college, is out on US-691 between Sherman and Denison, and North Texas Regional Airport uses the runways of the former Perrin Air Force Base, a pilot training field that closed in 1971.
On the north side of the city, a large 300-millimeter semiconductor campus has gone up over the last few years — the biggest capital project in the county's history, and the reason Sherman's housing and utility build-out has been running well ahead of its population figures. Optical component manufacturing has been in the town for decades and sits nearby.
Highways
- US-75 – south through Van Alstyne, McKinney and Plano to Dallas; north through Denison to the Red River and Durant, Oklahoma.
- US-82 – east through Bells and Bonham to Paris; west through Whitesboro to Gainesville and I-35.
- SH-91 – north from Sherman to Denison Dam and Lake Texoma.
- SH-56 – the older east–west route, west to Whitesboro and east to Savoy.
- SH-289 (Preston Road) – north to Pottsboro and the Preston peninsula; south toward Gunter and Celina.
- SH-11 – southeast to Whitewright and Leonard.
- Loop 11 – the ring road around Sherman connecting US-75, US-82 and the north-side industrial district.
Districts and towns in Grayson County
| Place | Population (2020) | What's there |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown Sherman | — | Grayson County courthouse and square, Travis and Lamar streets |
| Austin College | — | Campus north of downtown off Grand Avenue |
| North-side industrial | — | Semiconductor campus and manufacturing along US-75 and Loop 11 |
| Denison | 24,459 | 10 miles north; Eisenhower Birthplace, the dam and the lake beyond |
| Van Alstyne | 4,399 | US-75 south, the fastest-growing town in the county |
| Whitesboro | 4,069 | US-82 west at the SH-377 junction |
| Howe | 3,615 | US-75 south between Sherman and Van Alstyne |
| Pottsboro | 2,488 | Lake Texoma town on SH-120 northwest of Sherman |
| Tom Bean | 920 | Southeast of the city on SH-11 |
Distances from Sherman
| City | Road miles | Route |
|---|---|---|
| Denison | 10 | US-75 N |
| McKinney | 30 | US-75 S |
| Frisco | 40 | US-75 S / SH-121 SW |
| Plano | 45 | US-75 S |
| Denton | 50 | US-377 SW via Pilot Point |
| Paris | 60 | US-82 E |
| Dallas | 65 | US-75 S |
Road miles are approximate driving distances on the route named.