The Woodlands sits along Interstate 45 about 30 miles north of Downtown Houston, spanning Montgomery and Harris counties. Oil-and-gas entrepreneur George Mitchell began developing the community in the early 1970s, opening it on October 19, 1974 with a single school, one residential village (Grogan's Mill), and a hotel that later became The Woodlands Resort. Mitchell, who called the project his proudest achievement, envisioned "a caring place surrounded by nature" — a master-planned alternative to sprawling, car-dependent suburbs, built across roughly 28,000 acres with a commitment to preserve at least 28% of the native pine forest. That philosophy still shapes the township today: homes and neighborhood centers are tucked among the trees rather than cleared for them, and each of the community's nine residential villages was designed around its own local shops, restaurants, and grocery stores. In 2008, residents voted to convert The Woodlands into a special-purpose township, giving it municipal-style services and self-governance without becoming an incorporated city. What started as fewer than 40 families in 1974 has grown into a community of roughly 123,000 residents and is regularly ranked among the best places to live in the country.