Is the Texas Almanac Still Necessary in the Era of Smartphones?

In our line of work, once in a while you need help pronouncing a person's name or the name of a place. Take, for example, the small town about 50 miles east of downtown Houston that spells its name A-N-A-H-U-A-C. Well, if you had a copy of the Texas Almanac, you could easily find out that town pronounces its name "anna-WHACK." (Go fightin' Panthers by the way!)

Or let's say you're a researcher who needs to know how much cotton the state produced the last couple years. Well, that's in the Texas Almanac too – along with countless other details about the history of the state, economic data, arts and culture – and even the records of high school sports teams.

The almanac was first published in 1857 in Galveston and last month released its 2016 – 2017 edition (now published by the Texas State Historical Association). Michael Hagerty talked with editor Elizabeth Alvarez and asked her if a printed volume of such information was still necessary in the age of smartphones and the Internet.

MORE: Texas Almanac Searchable Archive