OurCelina - January 2022

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Celina's bank for business!

Jenni Higgins, Mortgage Lending Administrator

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Ron Corcoran, President Celina Branch

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Do these faces look familiar? We’re your local bankers and neighbors in Celina and Prosper! Texas Republic Bank is not your average bank! We are the oldest bank charter headquartered in Collin County and your community bank.

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OURCELINA

TABLEOF CONTENTS 7

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City of Celina Council & Ordinance Information City of Celina Budget Overview

10-11 Gone Fishin' - Celina History

Published By 4CMEDIAGROUP, LLC Editorial & Design Renee Marler Renee@4cMediaGroup.com Production Jimmy Marler James@4cMediaGroup.com Contributing Writers Renee Marler | Celina ISD | Lisa Ferguson

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Celina Cheer - UIL Spirit Champions!

Contributing Art & Photography 4CMEDIAGROUP Renee Marler | Camden Caldwell-Marler | Jimmy Marler Editorial Submissions Please send editorial considerations to Renee@4CMEDIAGROUP.com

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OurCelina 114 N. Ohio, Suite 100, Celina, TX 75009 214.592.7512 | www.OurCelina.com

ON THE COVER Celina Cheer - 2022 UIL Spirit Champions Photos by: Renee Marler

OURCELINA

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Phoot Courteys of UIL

2022 3A, DII UIL SPIRIT CHAMPS!

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Joel

Petrazio Republican for Judge County Court at Law #5

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By Lisa Ferguson

Gone Fishin'...

Photo coutresy of Texas Memorial Museum

A massive fossil, excavated in Celina nearly 90 years ago, has been on display at the Texas Memorial Museum since the late 1930s.

There are likely very few Celina residents remaining who can recall when, 88 years ago, a massive fossil was discovered east of the city in Haw Creek by resident Homer Lafayette Merritt. It is that of a bony fish called a Xiphactinus audax, which lived some 65 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period.

Considered to have been a fierce predator, the Xiphactinus audax could reach up to 20 feet in length. Its name, meaning “saber rod,” came courtesy of the sword-like pectoral fins that helped to maintain its balance. Populated with large fanglike teeth, its upturned jaw could open wide enough to swallow whole a 6-footlong fish and also lent its face a bulldog-like appearance.

A metal sign posted at County Roads 455 and 127 marks the area of Merritt’s 1930 find and features a photo of the fossil as well as A 1940 informational circular from the Texas Memorial Museum a bit about its history, as culled from the book A History of Collin described the fish in detail: “The long, slender body, powerful County, Texas by J. Lee and Lillian J. Stambaugh. fins and large tail show that these fish were fast and powerful swimmers. The sharp teeth indicate that the fish were able to During the Cretaceous Period, “large areas of Texas were covered cope with the giant aquatic reptiles of that time. The bony ring by warm seas containing a great many kinds of strange plants, surrounding the eye served as a protecting shield.” fish, clams and reptiles. Initially covered by soft, limy deposits at the bottom of the sea, through time agents of erosion exposed “The eye is kind of scary looking,” Owen said recently. “It’s somemany of these fossils. This particular fish is a relative of pres- thing definitely prehistoric and something you wouldn’t want to ent-day tarpon, salmon, herring and trout.” run into or hook on your line if you were out fishing in the Gulf. … A lot of visitors, when they see the big, toothy mouth, I hear The nearly 13-foot-long Xiphactinus audax fossil has been on dis- them say, ‘Oh, it looks like a piranha,’ and I guess that is what play since 1939 at the Texas Memorial Museum, located on the comes to mind. Obviously, it’s something that lived in the marine campus of The University of Texas in Austin, where it is featured realm and not a freshwater animal.” on an audio tour for visitors. According to Dr. Pamela Owen, associate director of the museum, the fossil was first displayed on According to the Texas Memorial Museum circular, the fossil campus in 1936 as part of an exhibit in honor of Texas’ centennial found in Celina was “dug from solid rock” after having been “burcelebration. ied in hundreds of feet of soft mud and later fossilized. When the 10 january 2022 | ourcelinacom

Photo coutresy of Lisa Ferguson

A marker at County Roads 455 and 127 features a photo and history of the Xiphactinus audax fossil found there in 1930 by Celina resident Homer Merritt.

Homer Merritt went on to wed his wife, Gladys, in the mid1930s. For years, he worked as a local farmer and entrepreneur. With a group of men from the area, he helped organize the Celina Cooperative Gin. Merritt also served on the Celina City Council, owned an implement dealership and managed a local mill prior to his death in 1964. He and Gladys, who passed away in 1990, were laid to rest at Cottage Hill Cemetery. The couple’s children - son Mike Merritt and daughter Jane Huddleston - continue to reside in Celina.

land rose and the shallow seas retreated from the area … the land was exposed to the wind and rain, and after millions of years the skeleton of this giant fish was exposed to sunlight.”

The Xiphactinus audax fossil was not Homer Merritt’s first prehistoric find in Celina. According to a 2013 account penned The fossil was excavated from the Austin Chalk, a geologic by Huddleston, area resident Julia Rucker recalled that Merritt formation that “extends into Kansas and Colorado. The contin- had previously discovered another large fossil in Haw Creek uous beds carrying characteristic marine fossils from Texas to on the west side of CR 127. However, that specimen was reKansas prove that the sea reached from Mexico and Texas into portedly damaged during the excavation process. those states.”

Also in 1930, a Celina resident named Roy Williams reportedBorn in 1902, Homer Merritt and his family moved from Ten- ly discovered another formidable fish fossil about nine miles nessee to Celina when he was a teen. He later was a student northeast of the city. The specimen, which reportedly meaat the University of Oklahoma. While in his mid-20s, he dis- sured 18 feet long and boasted a large eye socket, is believed covered the Xiphactinus audax fossil and called the university, to have been taken to Southern Methodist University. which sent a team to Celina to excavate it.

Reprinted from a previous issue of OurCelina.

In a Celina Record newspaper article published on Nov. 13, 1930, University of Oklahoma Geology Professor J. Willis Stovall was quoted as saying, “Homer Merritt is to be commended for reporting this find to the department of paleontology. If such spirit is kept up it will not be long before O.U. has a remarkable collection of vertebrate fossils.”

Owen said the Xiphactinus audax fossil was purchased from OU by UT. It had been excavated minus its tail fin – a fact she learned from late paleontologist Dr. Wann Langston Jr., an OU graduate who had studied under and worked alongside Stovall before serving as director of the Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory at UT from 1969 through 1986.

A tail from another Xiphactinus audax fossil was attached to the specimen recovered in Celina. “So, the fossil we have on exhibit is technically the components of two different individuals,” Owen explained, “but most of the fish is from the one that was originally found in Celina. I’m not sure where the tail is from.”

Overall, “It’s a stunning specimen,” Owen said of the fossil found by Merritt. “Not just for its size, but for its beauty and the details you can see, especially on the head.”

Photo coutresy of Jane Huddleston

Homer Lafayette Merritt discovered a 13-foot-long Xiphactinus audax fossil near Haw Creek in 1930. The longtime Celina resident worked as a local farmer and entrepreneur and also served on the City Council prior to his death in 1964.

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