The city of Grapevine, in the heart of North Texas, traces its roots back to 1844. Today's community was first a settlement by hardy pioneers; then evolved into a small farming town; and later had its destiny shaped by transportation changes from railroads to the DFW International Airport; not to mention the creation of Grapevine Lake in the middle of the 20th century. In the 1970s, the Grapevine Historical Society was created out of an urgent need to rescue and preserve buildings, artifacts, and histories that were imminent danger of being lost to time. One of the Society's early projects was the compilation of Grapevine Area History, a chronicle of key people and places of Grapevine's past. Expanded once and reprinted several times in the decades since, not only is this the original primary reference work for area history, it has itself taken on a historical context, as the city has grown and changed dramatically since it was written.