Conroe is the seat of
Montgomery County, and lies 40 miles north of
Houston toward
Huntsville on I-45, in the Lake Conroe Area below the
Sam Houston National Forest.
It is home to Montgomery College.
The oil revenues and population influx of the 1930s lent Conroe a boomtown atmosphere. It briefly claimed more millionaires per capita than any other town in the United States.
With the construction of I-45, increasing numbers of Houstonians took up residence on the margins of Conroe. Lake Conroe was impounded (created) in the late 1960s and early 1970s, seven miles northwest on the West Fork of the San Jacinto River, further stimulating local growth.
The population grew to 27,610 by 1990.