Bonham -- Every picture tells a story, as the saying goes, but sometimes a chunk of concrete can tell a good story, too.

This story goes back to the 1970s when a young banker named Bert Simpson arrived in Bonham and, in the interest of economic development, began asking residents what Bonham needed most. The response at that time was almost unanimous.

"We want a modern highway between Bonham and Sherman," area residents told Simpson.

It was a time when Fannin County residents shopped en mass in Sherman.  Date night and shopping trips consisted of running the gauntlet of small-town radar traps between Bonham and Sherman. 

In the 1970s, Fannin County needed a safer, faster route to Sherman -- and a modern highway was even rumored to be in the works. 

Convinced of the importance of this project, Simpson and two other Bonham businessmen scheduled an appointment to speak with Texas Department of Transportation officials in Austin.

Simpson remembers being told that larger cities were placing more urgent demands on TxDOT funds, but it was only a few months until a call came from TxDOT -- right-of-way was now being purchased for a new U.S. 82 that would pass along the north side of Bonham on its way to Sherman.

When the first section of concrete east of Sherman tested, in late '85 or early '86, core samples were sent out as mementos to several proponents of the project.   

When most people walk into Bert Simpson's office at Simpson Bookkeeping, it is a captivating portrait of Albert Einstein that catches their eye. But a relatively inconspicuous concrete core sample tells the story of the recently opened four-lane stretch of U.S. 82 between Bonham and Sherman.

For instance, Commission Minute Order No. 47821, dated June 2, 1960 authorized planning to start on U.S. 82.

Right-of-way was obtained in December 1985.

The first segment between State Highway 78 and State Highway 121 was let December 13, 1985, and that segment was completed September 26, 1986, followed by a ribbon cutting October 15, 1986.