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Garland, Texas

Everything Garland is known for

4 songs mention this city 5 artists from here

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Music in Garland

Songs About Garland

Garland
Dirty Heads
80%
"Song about Garland"
Garland (Salon Spa)
Luna Skyborne
80%
"Song about Garland"
Green Garland
Songs From The Road Band
78%
"Green Garland"
Saltwater Cowboy
Tracy Byrd
7%
"wearin' flipflops and a stetson"

Artists From Garland

L
LeAnn Rimes
country
C
Chris August
pop
C
Crystal Bernard
pop
G
Gary Nicholson
country
A
Amber Dotson
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Garland

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Garland.

Interstate 45 8 songs Trinity River 11 songs Interstate 20 13 songs Sabine River 13 songs Interstate 35 45 songs Sulphur River 2 songs

Musical Heritage

Autumn Sound Studios (now Audio Dallas) RoadyGoat

There's a squat beige brick building in an industrial park in Garland, northeast of Dallas, that had been open all of three months when Willie Nelson walked in during January of 1975. It had the first twenty-four track console in Texas, and the lead engineer, Phil York, offered Willie a free day. He took five. What came out was "Red Headed Stranger" — songs running from twenty-five-second interludes to five-minute pieces. Willie had just signed to Columbia for a sixty-thousand-dollar advance, and when the label heard it, they figured he'd handed them a demo. It wasn't. "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" off that record became his first number one as a singer. The room's called Audio Dallas now, and it's barely changed since.

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Red Headed Stranger 50th anniversary event, downtown Garland RoadyGoat

Fifty years after Willie Nelson cut "Red Headed Stranger" in a Garland studio, the city finally threw the record the party it never got. Here's the kicker: when organizer Jeff Ryan started calling around, he found that locals — even working musicians — had no idea the album was made in their own town. So they fixed that. Two days, one time only. Ray Benson, Rhett Miller, Joshua Ray Walker, and Max and Heather Stalling played the whole album live, backed by a pickup crew they called The Band of Strangers. They rolled in Willie's actual tour bus for photos, screened the old film with Morgan Fairchild on the panel, and the state stamped Garland an official Music Friendly City. Half a century late — but Garland finally said the quiet part out loud. This one's ours.

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Red Headed Stranger' by Willie Nelson, recorded at Autumn Sound in Garland RoadyGoat

Everybody wants to give Willie Nelson's outlaw masterpiece to Nashville, or to Austin. Truth is, "Red Headed Stranger" got cut in Garland, Texas — a Dallas suburb — at a room called Autumn Sound. Five days. Four thousand dollars. Willie and his wife Connie dreamed up the whole story on a drive home from Colorado: a preacher on the run after he guns down his cheating wife and her lover. His sister Bobbie played the saloon piano, plain and haunted. When Columbia heard the tapes, they figured it was a rough demo — too bare, too quiet to sell. Then "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" went to number one, Willie's first ever. Turns out the label just didn't know what stripped-down courage sounded like.

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History of Garland

How Garland Became the Cowboy Hat Capital of Texas RoadyGoat

The city you're rolling through makes more cowboy hats than just about anywhere on earth, and it started with two Dallas hatmakers. In 1927, E.R. Byer and Harry Rolnick founded Byer-Rolnick and chose the name Resistol, a contraction of the idea that a good felt hat should resist all weather. In 1938 they moved production up the rail line to Garland into a larger plant, and by the late 1950s that factory was one of the largest cowboy hat works in the world. Rolnick's signature trick was the Self-Conforming hatband, an interior band that lets a hat slowly mold to the exact shape of the wearer's head. Resistol is still made here today, joined over the decades by Master Hatters of Texas and Dorfman Milano, so labels like Resistol, Stetson, and Justin all trace through this one suburb. Together the local makers turn out more than a million cowboy hats a year. In 2013 the Texas Legislature made it official with House Concurrent Resolution 96, naming Garland the Cowboy Hat Capital of Texas. (Source: Texas Monthly; Texas Legislature HCR 96; Resistol.)

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The Night a Tornado Crossed the I-30 Interchange RoadyGoat

On the evening of December 26, 2015, the day after Christmas, a violent EF4 tornado tore across the southeastern edge of Garland and into neighboring Rowlett. It touched down near Sunnyvale at 6:46 p.m. and stayed on the ground for about 13 minutes, with winds strong enough to throw vehicles. The cruelest stretch was the elevated interchange where Interstate 30 meets the President George Bush Turnpike, right here. As the funnel crossed the high ramps, it swept cars and trailers off the bridge decks and into the lanes below. Of the 10 people killed by the storm, nine died on that interchange, trapped in their vehicles, including a one-year-old, and hundreds more were injured across the affected suburbs. It stands as the deadliest U.S. tornado of 2015 and, by the records kept since 1950, the first deadly December tornado ever in Dallas County. Drivers passing this interchange today are crossing the exact ground where one of North Texas's darkest holiday nights unfolded. (Source: Wikipedia; National Weather Service Fort Worth; WFAA.)

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Garland, TX RoadyGoat

Garland's history is marked by pivotal moments that shaped its destiny. The city was born out of a rivalry between two communities, Embree and Duck Creek, which eventually merged to form Garland in 1891. A devastating F4 tornado in 1927 claimed 15 lives, including the former mayor. The city's industrial growth was spurred by World War II, with several aircraft plants operating in the area. Post-war, Kraft Foods and Walmart's first Hypermart USA prototype further boosted the economy. Garland's population nearly quadrupled by 1960, reflecting the post-WWII suburban boom.

A. J. Head Service Station

1947

The Federal Aid Road Act (1916) and the formation of the Texas Highway Department resulted in the creation of Texas Highway 1, or Bankhead Highway. The Bankhead was America's second east-to-west transcontinental highway, which went through several Texas cities, including Garland. Commercial growth and a boom of businesses along the highway boosted Garland's economy for decades.
 A.J. Head, the original owner of the A.J. Head/Humble Station, opened a filling station in 1947. It housed many businesses to serve Bankhead Highway drivers, including a tire shop, auto repair shop, bail bond office, welding shop and discount retail store. Head sold the business in 1957, coinciding with the decreased importance of the Bankhead Highway.
 Still at its original location, the station has received few significant changes over the years. Designed by Robert Otis Lagrone, the two-story brick building was built in the Streamline Moderne style, popular in the 1930s and 1940s. The style emphasized smooth surfaces, horizontal lines, and curved corners. The curved brick wall of the building and the original metal canopy illustrated important characteristics of the style. While the canopy at the front of the building was removed, the steel and horizontal lines emphasized the style's industirual aesthetic. Because of its important place on the Bankhead Highway, the A.J. Head Humble Station shows its important role in Garland's essential economic and industrial growth in the 1940s and 1950s. (2018)

Historical Marker →

Duck Creek, TX

1846

Duck Creek was the name of two communities, sometimes called Old Duck Creek and New Duck Creek, located in northeastern Dallas County; their site was within the present city limits of Garland, fifteen miles northeast of downtown Dallas. The first Duck Creek, at the present junction of Garland Road and Duck Creek, had its beginning as one of the original settlements of the Peters colony . Early settlers were attracted to the area by the many springs along the creek. The first schoolhouse, a log structure built sometime after 1846, was replaced by a frame building in 1852. This second school also served as a meetingplace for the Baptist and Methodist congregations. In 1854 Duck Creek acquired a post office, which it retained until 1866. About 1868 the school was named Duck Creek Academy. Overcrowding caused the school to move into the Grange Hall at an unknown date and later into the Methodist Church. In 1880 a new one-room school was built on the site of the old school. The Masonic and Grange Hall was moved to the school and added onto it as a new wing. Permission to establish a Duck Creek Masonic lodge was granted on September 19, 1873, and a charter was issued on June 7, 1875. In 1874 a store was established on the west bank of the creek, and in 1876 a corn mill was built. Duck Creek acquired a post office again in 1877. By 1884 the community had a district school, three churches, two gristmills, three steam cotton gins, and three general stores. Its population of 100 included three physicians, two teachers, one carpenter and a carpenter-wagonmaker, one blacksmith, and one shoemaker. Two years later the town acquired a patent roller flour mill, which was built on the east side of the creek. The largest business in Duck Creek is said to have been the Grange store, known as the Duck Creek Co-operative Association, which closed in March 1887. In 1886, first the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe and then the Dallas and Greenville railroad bypassed Duck Creek. The Santa Fe built a depot about a mile to the east, while the Missouri, Kansas and Texas (which acquired the Dallas and Greenville later in 1886) established a depot less than a mile to the north. Both railroads bought land from William A. Tinsley and laid out towns adjacent to their depots. The community established by the Santa Fe was named Embree, after Kelley H. Embree, a physician, storekeeper, and Duck Creek postmaster. The community laid out by the MK&T took the name Duck Creek, and was also known as New Duck Creek. Thereafter, residents of Old Duck Creek moved to one or the other of the new communities. Sometime in 1886 or early 1887 the Duck Creek Rustler moved and became reincarnated as the Embree Enterprise . On February 1, 1887, the Duck Creek post office was moved to the Santa Fe depot at Embree. The site of New Duck Creek is in Garland south of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas (later the Missouri Pacific) tracks and north of State Street. After the (Old) Duck Creek Rustler moved to Embree, John H. Cullum moved to Duck Creek at the urging of Thomas F. Nash, manager of the Grange store, and established the Duck Creek News , whose first issue appeared on April 8, 1887. Duck Creek remained a shipping point for area farmers. By late October 1887 it had shipped about 2,000 bales of cotton for the season and still had "a large quantity" on hand. New Duck Creek and Embree engaged in an intense rivalry, with several attempts made by one town to take over the other. In April 1887, one or more Duck Creek partisans had a map recorded that gave the whole area the name of Duck Creek. The two towns also obtained injunctions to prevent each other from incorporating. In spite of this, Embree was incorporated on November 12, 1887. Two weeks earlier, on October 29, Congressman Joseph Abbott , who was traveling to Washington for the opening of Congress, stopped at Duck Creek at the request of local residents to look at the situation. Shortly afterward he succeeded in having the post offi

Tsha Handbook →

Hill, Anita Dorcas Carraway

1977

Anita Dorcas Carraway Hill, state legislator, was born on August 13, 1928, in Chatfield, Texas, to Archie C. Carraway, a Methodist preacher, and Martha Helen (Butler) Carraway. During the Great Depression the family moved to Arkansas. Anita Carraway later returned to Texas, where she graduated from Marlin High School in 1946. She attended Texas State College for Women (later Texas Woman's University), where she earned a bachelor of arts in journalism in 1950. She was vice-president of her senior class, editor for the student paper Lass-O , and member of Theta Sigma Phi and numerous student clubs and organizations . Prior to graduating she was hired as society editor of the Garland News . By 1952 she was the educational director of the First Methodist Church of Garland, where she was a congregant for the rest of her life. On September 21, 1952, Anita Carraway married Clodius Harris Hill in Garland. Harris Hill was an executive in the Hunt Oil Company and longtime trustee of the Garland school board-the Garland Independent School District's administrative building was named after him. They had two children, Steve and Ginger. Anita Hill served for seventeen-years on the Garland school board, starting in 1972. In 1971, following her successful efforts to save the town's Indian Lake and surrounding green space from development, Hill was appointed to Garland's park board and served as its chair from 1976 to 1977. Indian Lake Park was renamed Anita C. Hill Park at Indian Lake after Hill's death in 2003. Hill worked as a legislative aide to Kenneth Vaughan, Democratic state representative for District 33-D. Following Vaughan's resignation in 1977, Hill ran in a special election to replace him. She defeated her opponent, Republican Mike McCauley, by fewer than 300 votes in a runoff. She campaigned on repealing state taxes on utilities. She was sworn into the Texas House of Representatives on August 11, 1977, during the Sixty-fifth Texas Legislature. In September she was appointed to the committees on Business and Industry and on Health and Welfare. Hill served on numerous committees and sponsored a wide variety of bills throughout her more than fifteen-year-long career as a lawmaker. In the Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh legislatures she was vice chair of the Judicial Affairs Committee; in the Sixty-eighth legislature she was vice chair of the Cultural and Historical Resources Committee; in the Seventieth and Seventy-first legislatures she chaired the House Research Organization Steering Committee; and, in her final term in office, the Seventy-second legislature, she was vice chair of the Business and Commerce Committee. Among her legislative achievements were regulations mandating child safety seats in motor vehicles and toughening safety standards for nursing homes. She also supported occupational safety regulations and the restriction of abortion access for the third trimester and opposed the repeal of "blue laws," which required certain businesses to be closed on Sundays, and the repeal of anti-gambling laws. Hill was the first female Texas legislator to switch political parties while in office. She made this change in 1979 in anticipation of Republican party gains at the local and national levels in the 1980 election, in which Ronald Reagan won the presidency. A conservative Democrat who had worked for Barry Goldwater's campaign in 1964, Hill explained that her switch to the GOP was motivated by liberal shifts in the Democratic party and that "the people of my district want conservative representation." Her husband resigned as secretary of the Dallas County Democratic party to support her campaign. In 1981 Hill became embroiled in controversy when she was denied entry to a lunchtime meeting at the private Citadel Club in Austin's Driskill Hotel because of her sex. In response a group of women legislators proposed a resolution stating that no member of the House would attend functions at places that denied entry to any House member.

Tsha Handbook →

Lake Highlands Elementary School

1955

Opening in 1955, Lake Highlands Elementary School has served this area for more than 50 years. Prior to 1955, public education in the area was limited to Little Egypt School for black students and Rogers School, which closed in 1929 when it was incorporated into Richardson Independent School District, for white students. Public schools in the Richardson School District would remain segregated until 1965. 	Following World War II, Richardson School District’s enrollment increased dramatically, following the trend of suburban growth across the nation. In 1954, voters approved bond issues supporting the funding of a new elementary in Lake Highlands, and an elementary and high school for African-American students in Hamilton Park. Builders completed work on the six-room Lake Highlands Elementary School in 1955. However, a surge in area population growth led to a six-room addition in 1959. During these early years, an active Parent-Teacher Association developed, which raised funds for school projects. 	Lake Highlands Elementary has been a leader in public education since its opening. Notably, in 1960, it became one of the first schools in the nation to use television for educational purposes, as students learned from programs broadcast from Richardson High School. Throughout the 1960s, enrollment continued to grow. By the 1980s, the school began to host special programs, including bilingual education, pre-kindergarten and centralized special education. The student body has also diversified over the years. Today, Lake Highlands Elementary School remains a leader in child education in the State of Texas.	(2008)

Historical Marker → · 4.8 mi away

Garland

1846

Settlement of this area began in the 1840s. A small community named Duck Creek was established and by 1846 a log cabin was serving as a community center, school, and Union Church. Early businesses included a general store, grist mill, and cotton gin. In 1886 The Gulf, Colorado, & Santa Fe Railroad built a line through Dallas County, passing about one mile east of Duck Creek. A new town, named Embree in honor of one of Duck Creek's early doctors, was laid out along the rail line. The Missouri, Kansas, & Texas Railroad built a second rail line north of the Santa Fe Tracks. The original Duck Creek settlement declined in favor of New Duck Creek on the MKT Rail Line. A U.S. Post Office was authorized for the area in 1887 and was positioned between the two towns. Named for U.S. Attorney General A. H. Garland, the site became a new town into which the earlier communities merged. The citizens voted to incorporate in 1891, and M. Davis Williams was elected first mayor. Garland flourished in the early 20th century and survived the Great Depression. Rapid transportation and industrial growth following World War II changed the city's economic base. Garland continues to be an important part of Dallas County history.

Historical Marker →

Things to Do in Garland

historical 13.5 mi away
The Sixth Floor Museum

Where Lee Harvey Oswald fired from. The JFK assassination site at Dealey Plaza.
historical 13.5 mi away
Dealey Plaza

On November 22 1963 President John F Kennedy rode through Dealey Plaza in an open Lincoln convertible and was shot from the sixth floor window of the Texas…
quirky 11.6 mi away
Big Tex at the State Fair

A fifty-five-foot cowboy named Big Tex has welcomed visitors to the State Fair of Texas in Fair Park Dallas every fall since 1952. He booms howdy folks over a…
historical 7.8 mi away
Southfork Ranch

The filming location of TV's Dallas. JR Ewing lived here.
spooky 8.3 mi away
Lady of White Rock Lake

Since the 1930s drivers along White Rock Lake report picking up a soaking-wet woman in a white dress. She asks for a ride home then vanishes leaving the seat…
quirky 9.0 mi away
Southfork Ranch

The Ewing family TV mansion from the Dallas soap opera sits on two hundred acres in Parker Texas and is open for tours every day. JRs bedroom is there. The…
food 12.3 mi away
Pecan Lodge

Dallas' best BBQ. The beef rib alone is worth the drive.

Sports in Garland

⭐ HOMETOWN LEGENDS Class 5A · Football

Naaman Forest Forest Rangers — Naaman Forest — a college & pro athletic pipeline

8 alumni who reached major-college or pro sports

Garland's Naaman Forest High School has a proud tradition of athletes who have gone on to compete at the collegiate and professional levels. Among the football talents, Nick Browne played for the TCU Horned Frogs, while Uche Nwaneri went on to play for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Jacob Lacey brought his skills to the Indianapolis Colts, Detroit Lions, and Minnesota Vikings. John Harris played for the Texas Longhorns and in the CFL. More recently, Devean Deal is an NFL linebacker for the Seattle Seahawks.

The Rangers' athletic influence extends beyond the gridiron. On the basketball court, Demarcus Holland plays professionally in New Zealand, and Prince Ibeh plays professionally in Mexico. Naaman Forest has also seen success in soccer, with Reyna Reyes playing for the Mexico women's national soccer team and Portland Thorns FC. These alumni represent the dedication and skill fostered within the school's athletic programs.

Pro/D1 alumni
8
Class
5A
Key Players
  • Nick Browne — (1999) - Football player who played for the TCU Horned Frogs
  • Uche Nwaneri — (2003) - Football player who played for the Jacksonville Jaguars
  • Jacob Lacey — (2005) - Football player who played for the Indianapolis Colts, Detroit Lions, and Minneso
  • John Harris — (2010) - Football player who played in the CFL and for the Texas Longhorns
  • Demarcus Holland — (2012) - Basketball player who plays professionally in New Zealand
  • Prince Ibeh — (2012) - Basketball player who plays professionally in Mexico
The moment

Uche Nwaneri played for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Sources: Wikipedia · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)
⭐ HOMETOWN LEGENDS Class 6A · Football

Garland Owls — Garland — a college & pro athletic pipeline

6 alumni who reached major-college or pro sports

Garland High School, a proud Class 6A institution in Garland, Texas, has a history of producing athletes who've achieved at major-college and professional levels. The Owls' athletic program has seen former students go on to compete in various sports, making their mark beyond high school. From the gridiron to professional leagues, these alumni represent the dedication and talent fostered within the Garland community.

Among the notable former Owls are Hakeem Adeniji, an offensive lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals, and Chuck Dicus, an NFL wide receiver for the San Diego Chargers and member of the College Football Hall of Fame. Other alumni include NFL wide receiver Jordan Hudson for the Dallas Cowboys, former college football quarterback Seth Russell for the Baylor Bears, and Herkie Walls, an NFL, European, and Arena League running back. Karl Williams, an NFL and AFL veteran for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Arizona Cardinals, also hails from Garland High School.

Pro/D1 alumni
6
Class
6A
Key Players
  • Hakeem Adeniji — , offensive lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL)
  • Chuck Dicus — , NFL wide receiver for the San Diego Chargers in the late 1960s and early 1970s and membe
  • Jordan Hudson — , NFL wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys
  • Seth Russell — , former college football quarterback for the Baylor Bears
  • Herkie Walls — , NFL, European, Arena League running back, attended Texas
  • Karl Williams — , NFL, AFL, 9-year veteran for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Arizona Cardinals from 199
The moment

Chuck Dicus was an NFL wide receiver for the San Diego Chargers.

Sources: Wikipedia · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)
⭐ HOMETOWN LEGENDS Class 5A · Football

S Garland Titans — S Garland — a college & pro athletic pipeline

3 alumni who reached major-college or pro sports

South Garland High School has a proud tradition of athletic excellence, with several former Patriots going on to compete at the collegiate and professional levels. These athletes demonstrate the talent fostered within our community. We celebrate their hard work and dedication, which began right here in Garland.

Among the notable alumni are Quincy Morgan, who played wide receiver for teams like the Denver Broncos and Dallas Cowboys. Nick Florence quarterbacked for the Baylor University football team. More recently, Tyrese Maxey has made his mark as a guard for the Philadelphia 76ers, following his time with Kentucky.

Pro/D1 alumni
3
Class
5A
Founded
1964
Key Players
  • Quincy Morgan — (1996) – Wide receiver for the Blinn College, Kansas State Wildcats football, Denver Bronc
  • Nick Florence — (2007) - Quarterback for the Baylor University football team, 2009-2012
  • Tyrese Maxey — (2019) - Guard for Kentucky and for the Philadelphia 76ers.
The moment

Tyrese Maxey played guard for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Sources: Wikipedia
⭐ HOMETOWN LEGENDS Class 5A · Athletics

Lakeview Centennial Patriots — Lakeview Centennial — a college & pro athletic pipeline

3 alumni who reached major-college or pro sports

Lakeview Centennial High School in Garland, Texas, has a proud tradition of athletic excellence, with several former Patriots making their mark in major college and professional sports. Our alumni have gone on to compete at the highest levels, showcasing the dedication and talent fostered right here in Garland. It's always a pleasure to see former students achieve their dreams.

Among the notable athletes who once walked the halls of Lakeview Centennial are Derrick Dockery, an NFL football player; Athena, a professional wrestler currently of All Elite Wrestling and Ring of Honor; and Zhaire Smith, an NBA basketball player. These individuals represent the diverse athletic pathways available to our students and serve as an inspiration to current Patriots.

Pro/D1 alumni
3
Class
5A
Founded
1976
Key Players
  • Derrick Dockery — , NFL football player
  • Athena — , professional wrestler Athena, currently of All Elite Wrestling and Ring of Honor, previo
  • Zhaire Smith — , NBA basketball player
The moment

Athena, a professional wrestler, has captivated audiences in All Elite Wrestling and Ring of Honor.

Sources: Wikipedia · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near Garland

1893 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

  • How Garland Became the Cowboy Hat Capital of Texas

    The city you're rolling through makes more cowboy hats than just about anywhere on earth, and it started with two Dallas hatmakers. In 1927, E.R. Byer and Harry Rolnick founded Byer-Rolnick and chose the name Resistol,…

  • The Hall of Fame Swing Born on Garland Hardpan

    One of golf's all-time greats came into the world right here. Lee Buck Trevino was born in Garland on December 1, 1939, into hard poverty, raised by his mother and a grandfather who dug graves, in a small house that had…

  • The Night a Tornado Crossed the I-30 Interchange

    On the evening of December 26, 2015, the day after Christmas, a violent EF4 tornado tore across the southeastern edge of Garland and into neighboring Rowlett. It touched down near Sunnyvale at 6:46 p.m. and stayed on…

  • Garland, TX

    Garland's history is marked by pivotal moments that shaped its destiny. The city was born out of a rivalry between two communities, Embree and Duck Creek, which eventually merged to form Garland in 1891. A devastating…

  • The Materials Science Hidden Inside a Cowboy Hat

    There's a surprising amount of materials engineering riding on a Garland-made cowboy hat. A fur-felt hat isn't woven or stitched from cloth; it's matted. Tiny barbed fibers of beaver and rabbit underfur are bombarded…

  • Fifteen Seconds at the Culwell Center

    The Curtis Culwell Center in Garland is an events hall owned by the school district. On May third, two thousand fifteen, it hosted a contest of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, put on by the American Freedom Defense…

  • One Kick, Three Titles: Garland's Owls

    Garland High's nineteen fifty six football state championship came down to one kick, and it came one year after a heartbreak at home. In the nineteen fifty five Class Three-A state final, played in Garland, the Owls led…

  • The 1927 Cyclone and the Library Born From It

    Decades before the I-30 disaster, Garland was scarred by another twister. Early on Sunday, May 9, 1927, a powerful tornado, remembered locally as the Garland Cyclone, dropped south of town, skipped, and came down again,…

  • The Smiley Grave and a Legend the Cyclone Built

    In the dark at Mills Cemetery, near Commerce Street and Centerville Road, sits a single headstone that has fueled one of Garland's most persistent ghost stories. The Smiley marker lists a whole family who all died on…

  • The Voices That Grew Up in Garland

    Garland has been a launchpad for a striking number of voices. LeAnn Rimes, the country-pop prodigy who exploded onto the charts as a teenager with the song Blue and became one of the youngest artists ever to win major…

  • Garland's First Fallen Officer

    In Garland, the corner of Saturn Road and Lexington Drive is where the city's police department lost the first officer it ever lost in the line of duty. His name was Gerald Walker. He was forty-eight years old and wore…

  • The Bank Window on Centerville Road

    On February fifteenth, nineteen ninety seven, an employee at a Bank One branch on West Centerville Road in Garland called police about a suspicious man standing in a teller's line. Several employees had recognized him…

Show all 200 nearby places
  • Bobby Boyd, Garland's Greatest Athlete

    Homer Johnson worked in Garland schools for sixty-eight years, and he ranked Bobby Boyd as Garland's greatest athlete ever. At Garland High, Boyd ran, kicked, passed, returned kicks and played defensive back. He called…

  • Drive-In, Space-Age Twin, Then Hypermart

    One spot on South Garland Avenue in Garland has had three very different lives. The Garland Road Drive-In opened there on April seventh, nineteen fifty, with searchlights, a circus calliope band wagon, and the movie Oh,…

  • Garland's Zombieland Zinger

    Garland got a name check in a Hollywood zombie comedy, and it was not exactly a compliment. Early in the two thousand nine movie Zombieland, Jesse Eisenberg's character is at a service station running from zombies, and…

  • How a Water-Pump Spat Built Garland's Own Power Grid

    Most of the lights in Garland answer to the city itself, and the reason traces to a fight over a single water pump. In the early 1920s the private utility serving the area wouldn't give Garland a fair commercial rate to…

  • The Python on Apache Drive

    Garland animal control got a call on a Friday night in June two thousand twenty five from a resident near Apache Drive and Broadway Boulevard. A large snake was circling the front yard. It was a fifteen-foot reticulated…

  • Garland Softball's Four-Year Run

    Garland High softball once had a four-year run that included two state championships. The Garland team made the UIL state tournament in Class Five-A four years in a row, two thousand five through two thousand eight. It…

  • Five Springs of Garland Tennis Titles

    For five straight springs, Garland High tennis players brought home state titles. In nineteen forty nine Rod Williams of Garland won the UIL boys singles championship in Class One-A. In nineteen fifty a Garland girl won…

  • The Twenty-Foot Hat Watching Over the Square · 0.1 mi

    Look up near the Downtown Square at 420 Main Street and you'll see Garland's cheekiest monument to itself: a cream-colored cowboy hat about 20 feet long, 16 feet wide, and lifted some 15 feet into the air, billed as the…

  • The Neon-Ringed Plaza on the Square · 0.1 mi

    On the Downtown Square at 521 West State Street stands the Plaza Theatre, the most eye-catching building on the block and a survivor twice over. The site started as a 1918 hardware store that burned, and was rebuilt as…

  • Garland · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    Settlement of this area began in the 1840s. A small community named Duck Creek was established and by 1846 a log cabin was serving as a community center, school, and Union Church. Early businesses included a general…

  • Bankhead Highway in Garland · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past a piece of American history right here in Garland! This section of road was once part of the Bankhead Highway, America's second transcontinental route, stretching from Washington D.C. to San Diego.…

  • First Methodist Church of Garland · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Garland, and right here, you're passing the site of the First Methodist Church. This congregation started way back in 1855 with just 18 members. For years, traveling preachers rode circuits,…

  • First Christian Church of Garland · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Garland, a town that really took shape after the Civil War. Back in 1875, Reverend W. B. Cole organized the First Christian Church with just 21 members. They met in the local schoolhouse for…

  • A. J. Head Service Station · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    The Federal Aid Road Act (1916) and the formation of the Texas Highway Department resulted in the creation of Texas Highway 1, or Bankhead Highway. The Bankhead was America's second east-to-west transcontinental…

  • Santa Fe Railroad Depot · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Santa Fe Railroad Depot in Garland. Built in 1901 by the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad, this depot replaced an earlier one from the city's founding year of 1888. Designed by a railroad…

  • Public Education in Garland · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Garland, and right here is where public education took root. It started humbly, as the Duck Creek School, soon after this community was founded in 1887. Temporary spaces served students until the…

  • First Presbyterian Church of Garland · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Garland, and right here you're passing the site of the First Presbyterian Church. This congregation got its start way back on April 22, 1888, when Reverend Benjamin Spencer and twenty-five members…

  • Travis College Hill Addition · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Garland, and right here is the Travis College Hill Addition. Back between 1910 and 1920, Garland was booming, nearly doubling its population. Plans were in the works for an interurban trolley line…

  • First Baptist Church of Garland · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Garland's first church, the First Baptist Church. Baptists were meeting in this pioneer community as early as the 1850s. Then, on March 8, 1868, sixteen members formally organized Antioch…

  • Duck Creek, TX · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Duck Creek was the name of two communities, sometimes called Old Duck Creek and New Duck Creek, located in northeastern Dallas County; their site was within the present city limits of Garland, fifteen miles northeast of…

  • Hill, Anita Dorcas Carraway · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Anita Dorcas Carraway Hill, state legislator, was born on August 13, 1928, in Chatfield, Texas, to Archie C. Carraway, a Methodist preacher, and Martha Helen (Butler) Carraway. During the Great Depression the family…

  • Garland, TX · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Garland, a city born from a rivalry! Right here, in the late 1880s, two communities, Duck Creek and Embree, were locked in a fierce legal battle over incorporation. The conflict was so intense…

  • Amberton University · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Garland, Texas, near the intersection of I-635 and Northwest Highway. Right here, in 1971, a college began as a branch of Abilene Christian College. It was called ACC Metrocenter, and its early…

  • Bethel, George Emmett · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Garland, Texas, the birthplace of Dr. George Emmett Bethel. Born in 1894, Bethel wasn't just any doctor; he rose through the ranks to become the dean of the University of Texas medical school. He…

  • Garland Lodge No. 441, A.F. & A.M. · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving by Garland, Texas, where the Masons have been building community for a long time. Back in 1873, the Grand Lodge of Texas gave the green light for a lodge in the pioneer town of Duck Creek, which would…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: North Garland (Garland) · 0.6 mi

    North Garland (Garland, TX) placed on the 6A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Raul Puente (0.532 avg, 2 HR).

  • The Day After Christmas Storm · 1.1 mi

    On December 26th, 2015, the day after Christmas, the unthinkable happened. An unusually powerful, late-season tornado outbreak struck North Texas, and an EF4 twister, with winds around 180 miles per hour, carved a…

  • Autumn Sound Studios (now Audio Dallas) · 1.1 mi

    There's a squat beige brick building in an industrial park in Garland, northeast of Dallas, that had been open all of three months when Willie Nelson walked in during January of 1975. It had the first twenty-four track…

  • Red Headed Stranger 50th anniversary event, downtown Garland · 1.1 mi

    Fifty years after Willie Nelson cut "Red Headed Stranger" in a Garland studio, the city finally threw the record the party it never got. Here's the kicker: when organizer Jeff Ryan started calling around, he found that…

  • Red Headed Stranger' by Willie Nelson, recorded at Autumn Sound in Garland · 1.1 mi

    Everybody wants to give Willie Nelson's outlaw masterpiece to Nashville, or to Austin. Truth is, "Red Headed Stranger" got cut in Garland, Texas — a Dallas suburb — at a room called Autumn Sound. Five days. Four…

  • The Hatfields of Garland · 1.1 mi

    For nearly ninety years, if you wanted a real cowboy hat, chances are it came from Garland. Resistol started in Dallas in 1927 — E. R. Byer and hatmaker Harry Rolnick, the name meaning a hat that would 'resist all'…

  • The City That Owned the Night · 1.1 mi

    During the Cold War, some of the nation’s most sensitive military technology was being developed right here in Garland. You’re driving through a city that was a quiet powerhouse in the defense industry, thanks to a…

  • Engineering the Night: Varo's Vision · 1.1 mi

    Here in Garland, a local company essentially solved the problem of darkness. The company was Varo, and the technology was night vision. How did it work? It's a brilliant piece of physics. The scopes didn't create light;…

  • Garland, TX · 1.1 mi

    The city of Garland was named after U.S. Attorney General Augustus Hill Garland, as a result of a dispute between two communities, Embree and Duck Creek, over which town should have the local post office. The new…

  • The Aircraft-Engine Plant That Became a Food Factory · 1.3 mi

    The sprawling food plant off Forest Lane has a war story baked into its walls. During World War II, the Garland area hosted aircraft manufacturing, and this site ran as a Continental Motors plant turning out engines.…

  • Pioneer Cemetery · 1.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Pioneer Cemetery, the final resting place for many Dallas County pioneers. It began in the churchyard of Duck Creek Methodist Church, organized way back in the <say-as interpret-as="date"…

  • Mills Cemetery · 2.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Mills Cemetery, a quiet resting place established in 1854. It began as a 1.6-acre family plot for Edward C. Mills and his family, who were among the very first settlers in this part of Dallas County,…

  • Following the Creek That Named the Town · 2.8 mi

    If you want to actually meet Rowlett Creek, the waterway this whole town is named after, you can walk a piece of it. By the early 1990s Rowlett had grown into a lakeside suburb with more than 30 miles of Lake Ray…

  • Berkner High School (Aqib Talib) · 3.5 mi

    L.V. Berkner High School in Richardson, Texas (1600 East Spring Valley Road) is where Aqib Talib lettered in football, basketball, and track and was named the area's defensive back of the year. He became a unanimous…

  • Herfurth House · 3.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Herfurth House, a testament to early 20th-century Texas farming and architecture. In 1908, John Samuel Herfurth purchased 151 acres near Rowlett, bringing his parents to Dallas County. He soon…

  • Virgin Forest Hiding Beside the Freeway · 3.7 mi

    At the southeast corner of US-75 and Renner Road, a few steps off one of the busiest freeways in Texas, the pavement gives way to something that almost shouldn't exist this deep in the suburbs: a stand of old-growth…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Sachse (Sachse) · 4.0 mi

    Sachse (Sachse, TX) placed on the 6A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Julian Moreno (0.431 avg, 2 HR).

  • Highland Oaks Church of Christ · 4.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Dallas, past the history of Highland Oaks Church of Christ. It began way back on August 6, 1855, as a Christian Church congregation formed by Dallas pioneers like John Higgs Cole and Harvey…

  • The Day After Christmas Tornado · 4.4 mi

    On December 26, 2015, as families were enjoying the holiday weekend, the weather took a dark turn. A violent supercell thunderstorm spawned a tornado that touched down west of Sunnyvale and carved a thirteen-mile path…

  • The Water That Made the Peninsulas · 4.4 mi

    Look at a map of Rowlett and the town seems to reach out into the water with long, finger-like peninsulas. Those fingers are the gift, and the doing, of Lake Ray Hubbard. The City of Dallas dammed the East Fork of the…

  • The Night After Christmas · 4.4 mi

    On the night of December 26, 2015, a violent tornado tore out of the dark across the eastern Dallas suburbs. It reached EF4 strength near Garland, where it peaked around 180 mph and lifted vehicles off the elevated…

  • Engineering a Lakeside City · 4.4 mi

    The massive body of water defining Rowlett’s eastern edge, Lake Ray Hubbard, isn’t a natural lake. It’s a remarkable piece of civil engineering. By the 1960s, the city of Dallas was growing fast and desperately needed…

  • How You Rate a Wind You Never Measured · 4.4 mi

    Here's a puzzle the 2015 Rowlett tornado leaves behind: nobody put an anemometer in the funnel, so how do we know it hit 180 mph? The answer is forensic engineering. The Enhanced Fujita scale, used by the National…

  • Named for a Man Who Never Lived Here · 4.4 mi

    The town you're rolling into carries a name its namesake almost certainly never saw up close. Daniel Rowlett led a small company of Kentucky families into Texas in 1835, settling first in the Tulip Bend country along…

  • Rowlett, TX · 4.4 mi

    The city's name, Rowlett, has a unique origin. It was derived from Rowlett Creek, which in turn was named after Daniel Rowlett, who moved from Kentucky to Bonham, Texas, in 1835. Daniel was a member of the Smoot-Rowlett…

  • Rowlett, TX · 4.4 mi

    Rowlett, a city in Dallas and Rockwall Counties, has a rich history that dates back to its first post office opening in 1880, named 'Morris' after Postmaster Austin Morris. The town was later renamed 'Rowlett' after a…

  • Rails Return on the Old Katy Line · 4.4 mi

    Rowlett's story began with a railroad, and in a way it came full circle on December 3, 2012. That's the day DART's Blue Line light rail opened its Downtown Rowlett station, making this town the eastern end of the entire…

  • One Town, Two Counties, Two School Districts · 4.4 mi

    Most Texas towns sit neatly inside one county. Rowlett doesn't. The city straddles the line between Dallas County and Rockwall County, with the bulk of it on the Dallas side and a smaller eastern slice spilling over…

  • Rowlett, City of · 4.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Rowlett, Texas, a town with a name that might have come from a surveyor for Mercer's Colony. It started life in 1880 as Morris, with Austin Morris as its first postmaster. But three years after…

  • The Fastest Man to Come Out of Sachse High · 4.6 mi

    The Mustangs play here, and the school's most famous graduate is one of the fastest people the state of Texas has ever timed. Devin Duvernay was born in Sachse in 1997 and grew up a two-sport terror at Sachse High…

  • Sacred Heart Catholic Church of Rowlett · 4.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rowlett, a testament to the faith of Irish immigrants. Patrick McEntee, a farmer and merchant who helped build the railroad, arrived in Texas in 1874. He provided the…

  • Lake Highlands Elementary School · 4.8 mi · Historical Marker

    Opening in 1955, Lake Highlands Elementary School has served this area for more than 50 years. Prior to 1955, public education in the area was limited to Little Egypt School for black students and Rogers School, which…

  • McCree Cemetery · 4.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Dallas, passing McCree Cemetery. This wasn't just any burial ground; it started with a land grant in 1866 from Mahulda Bonner McCree. But look closely at the dates: at least two people, John Henry…

  • The Deal that Built the Town · 5.0 mi

    The railroad tracks that cut through Sachse are the reason this town is on the map. In the 1880s, when the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway was expanding, towns lived or died by their ability to attract a depot.…

  • Sachse, TX · 5.0 mi

    Sachse's history began with its founder, William Sachse, a European immigrant from Herford, Prussia, who established the town in 1845. Sachse played a pivotal role in the region's development by erecting the first…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Rowlett (Rowlett) · 5.0 mi

    Rowlett (Rowlett, TX) placed on the 6A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Jeff Claycomb (0.472 avg, 1 HR).

  • The Founder's Final Resting Place · 5.0 mi

    Just off Sachse Road, surrounded by modern development, is a small, quiet cemetery that holds the origin story of this town. This is the Sachse Cemetery, the resting place of William Sachse and his family. Sachse was…

  • Sachse · 5.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Sachse, a town that owes its very name to a railroad deal. Back in 1886, William Sachse donated land to the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad. In return, they agreed to lay tracks, build a…

  • A Town That Incorporated Just to Get a Drink of Water · 5.1 mi

    This unassuming spot on Fifth Street holds the reason Sachse became a city at all, and it's pure infrastructure. Lake Lavon had been built in 1948 and the North Texas Municipal Water District formed in 1951, so treated…

  • The Town That Started as Morris · 5.1 mi

    Before it was Rowlett, this place was Morris. When settlers opened the first post office here on April 5, 1880, they named it for the postmaster, Austin Morris. The name didn't stick. As the rails arrived, the community…

  • The Town the Railroad Misspelled · 5.1 mi

    The town you're rolling into is named for a Prussian immigrant who got here first and gave up his land to get a train. William Sachse left Herford, Prussia, landed in New York in 1840, and reached North Texas in 1845,…

  • The First Cotton Mill in the County, Powered by Oxen · 5.1 mi

    Before there was a town here, there was a mill. William Sachse built what local histories call the first combined cotton mill and gin in the county, and the power source was about as frontier as it gets: oxen and horses…

  • The Caboose That Became a City Office · 5.1 mi

    Parked off Fifth Street sits a bright railroad caboose that has had a stranger second career than most retired rolling stock. It started as Union Pacific car number 25613, taken out of service when the railroad retired…

  • When the First Paved Road Came Through · 5.1 mi

    For its first forty years Rowlett moved at the speed of a train. Then, in 1921, the Bankhead Highway came through, and the town learned the speed of the automobile. The Bankhead was the nation's second transcontinental…

  • Where the Founder Lies in the Ground He Gave Away · 5.1 mi

    Off Sixth Street near State Highway 78 lies the William Sachse Cemetery, two acres the founder set aside for a church and burial ground in the 1890s, just before he needed it himself. When William Sachse died in…

  • 185 Acres of Bottomland That Never Got Bulldozed · 5.1 mi

    Right where the subdivisions thin out along Pleasant Valley Road, the pavement gives way to Muddy Creek Preserve, a 185-acre survivor of mature hardwood bottomland that the suburb grew up around instead of over. Dallas…

  • Pleasant Valley Cemetery · 5.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Pleasant Valley Cemetery, the final resting place for some of this area's earliest settlers. Back in 1848, families like the Hollands and Boydstuns arrived here from Illinois, seeking new…

  • La Prada Drive Church of Christ · 5.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the La Prada Drive Church of Christ in Dallas. This congregation started meeting in members' homes way back in the late 1800s. By 1907, they bought land near Fair Park and used a white…

  • The History Museum Inside the Old Jail · 5.2 mi

    The Sachse Historical Society Museum at 3033 6th Street has a fitting home: it's housed in the city's original jailhouse, the small lockup that once held whoever this farm town needed to hold. The society formed in…

  • Sachse, Elizabeth McCullough Straily · 5.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Sachse, a town named for a pioneer woman who faced hardship and helped build this community. Elizabeth McCullough Straily Sachse arrived in Texas in 1845 as part of the Peters Colony settlers. She…

  • Rowlett, TX · 5.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Rowlett, a community named for a man who arrived in Texas way back in 1836. Dr. Daniel Rowlett moved here from Kentucky and bought a huge tract of land. A creek flowing through his property…

  • Sachse, TX · 5.2 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Sachse, a town that owes its very name to a generous land donation. It all started back in 1846 when Elizabeth Straly received a land grant. She later married William C. Sachse, a native of…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Lakeview Centennial (Garland) · 5.3 mi

    Lakeview Centennial (Garland, TX) placed on the 6A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Coleman Hedgecock (0.417 avg).

  • William Sachse Cemetery · 5.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the William Sachse Cemetery, a final resting place tied to the growth of North Texas. William Sachse arrived from Prussia in 1845, becoming a successful businessman and rancher. He owned over 5,000…

  • Sachse Cemetery · 5.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Sachse Cemetery, established in 1899. It's recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery.

  • The Night the Twisters Came Up Pleasant Valley · 5.4 mi

    On the night of October 20, 2019, a long line of tornadoes raked across the Dallas suburbs, and one of them clipped Sachse. The headline storm that night was a violent EF3 that tore a 15-mile gash through North Dallas…

  • Little Egypt · 5.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Little Egypt, a Black community founded by former slave Jeff Hill in 1883. For decades, it held onto its rural character, even with a church and schoolhouse. But in 1962, the whole…

  • Blewett Cemetery · 5.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Blewett Cemetery, established way back in 1855. It started when Reverend George Blewett buried his daughter Ann here. Blewett, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, had arrived from Kentucky just…

  • The Richardson Antennas That Carried the First Voices From Space · 5.8 mi

    Some of the most important radio engineering of the Space Age happened right here. In 1960 Collins Radio built a large satellite ground station at its Richardson campus and a twin in Cedar Rapids, then bounced signals…

  • How a Cotton-Field Suburb Became the Telecom Corridor · 5.8 mi

    The stretch of US-75 you're driving once carried a nickname known worldwide in the tech industry: the Telecom Corridor. It started with electronics. Texas Instruments planted a campus just south of the Richardson line…

  • The Town the Railroad Pulled Off the Prairie · 5.8 mi

    You're rolling into a town that exists because a railroad refused to stop where people already lived. Before 1873 the settlement here was Breckenridge, a small prairie community with a post office, store, blacksmith,…

  • The Art Festival That Began on Park Blankets · 5.8 mi

    Twice a year, the lawns of Cottonwood Park fill with white tents and tens of thousands of visitors for the Cottonwood Art Festival, one of the most respected outdoor fine-art shows in the country. It started humbly. In…

  • Richardson, TX · 5.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Richardson, Texas, a city that owes its existence to a railroad bypass. Back in 1858, a settlement called Breckinridge popped up right here, complete with a post office and an inn. But when the…

  • Where the Whole Town Started: Old Main Street · 5.8 mi

    Walk the 100 block of East Main Street and you're standing on Richardson's original reason for being. When the Houston and Texas Central built its line through here in 1873, it raised a depot near where the DART…

  • Gary, John · 5.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Dallas, and right here is where a star once called home. John Gary, born John Gary Strader in New York, became a household name in the 1960s. His soulful voice and three-octave range made hits…

  • Buckingham, TX · 5.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what used to be Buckingham, right here in Dallas County, completely surrounded by the city of Richardson. Incorporated around 1958, this small, semi-rural enclave held onto its identity for…

  • University of Texas at Dallas · 5.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    In 1959-60 the founders of Texas Instruments, John Erik Jonsson, Eugene McDermott , and Cecil Green, with the help of Lloyd Berkner, president of Associated University, established the Graduate Research Center of the…

  • First Presbyterian Church of Richardson · 5.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Richardson, and right here is the site of the First Presbyterian Church. It all started way back on August 21st, 1870, by Reverend George L. Blewett and twenty charter members. They called…

  • The Park One City Owned Inside Another · 5.9 mi

    On the lakeside tract along Interstate 30 sat one of North Texas's odder real-estate stories. Elgin B. Robertson Park, 257 acres of prime shoreline on Lake Ray Hubbard, sits squarely inside Rowlett, yet for decades the…

  • Flag Pole Hill Park · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Flag Pole Hill Park, a place that's been a community gathering spot for generations. This land was once owned by Church Goforth, a prominent cotton farmer, who sold it to the city in 1909 to create…

  • Officer David Sherrard Memorial Highway · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker

    Honors Richardson PD SWAT Officer David Sherrard, first Richardson PD line-of-duty death in the department's 63-year history, killed February 7, 2018, at the Breckinridge Point Apartments. Honorary segment on US-75…

  • Wheeler School · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Richardson, where William J. Wheeler, known as 'Uncle Billy,' deeded land for this townsite back in 1870. He then provided a public school for local children just northwest of here in 1880. After…

  • McKamy Spring · 6.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past McKamy Spring, a vital water source for centuries. Native American tribes likely camped here long before settlers arrived, and later, the community of Breckenridge relied on it. Even the construction…

  • The Sausage Farm With Hayrides on the Edge of Town · 6.1 mi

    On the corner of Plano Road and Lookout Drive sat one of Richardson's most beloved oddities: a working sausage company that doubled as a country tourist attraction. Owens Country Sausage traces back to 1928, when…

  • Officer David Sherrard Memorial Highway · 6.1 mi · Historical Marker

    U S Highway Seventy Five through Richardson, between the President George Bush Turnpike and the Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway, is the Officer David Sherrard Memorial Highway. David Sherrard served the Richardson Police…

  • Reinhardt Elementary School · 6.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Reinhardt Elementary School, a place that's been educating Dallas kids since the 1880s. It all started with a little frame schoolhouse on John Chenault's farm. But when the Santa Fe…

  • Floyd Pioneer Cemetery · 6.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Richardson, near the site of the Floyd Pioneer Cemetery. In 1855, John B. Floyd settled here and later set aside this acre for family burials. Early graves included children who died of diphtheria…

  • A Ranch House Older Than the Town Around It · 6.2 mi

    At 1424 Barnes Bridge Road sits a home that beat the town to the prairie. David W. and Julia Savannah Florence moved over from Van Zandt County and built the first section of the Florence Ranch homestead in 1871, two…

  • Florence Ranch Home · 6.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising past the Florence Ranch Home, a place that tells a story of Dallas County's ranching roots. David and Julia Florence built the first part of this house way back in 1871, right after they moved here. Back…

  • First Baptist Church of Richardson · 6.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Richardson's first church, a Baptist congregation that started way back in 1865. Originally called Mt. Calvary Baptist, they met in a schoolhouse before getting their own building in 1868…

  • First United Methodist Church Richardson · 6.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the First United Methodist Church in Richardson. Organized way back in 1886 as the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, this congregation started out meeting in another church building for its first…

  • Richardson · 6.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Richardson, a town that started life as Breckenridge back in the 1840s. But when the Houston and Texas Central Railroad came through in 1873, the folks here packed up and moved north to be near…

  • A Performing-Arts Hall in the Heart of the Tech Corridor · 6.5 mi

    Set in the Galatyn Park Urban Center at 2351 Performance Drive, the Charles W. Eisemann Center is Richardson's answer to the idea that a tech suburb has no soul. The center opened in September 2002 in the middle of the…

  • The Lady of the Lake · 6.6 mi

    White Rock Lake, in east Dallas, was dammed back in nineteen-ten, and the tree-lined loop around it — Lawther Drive — is where Dallas's oldest ghost story keeps getting told. Late at night, drivers say, a young woman in…

  • Anderson Family Cemetery · 6.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Anderson Family Cemetery, opened with the burials of William and Celia Anderson, who came here from Kentucky by way of the Missouri frontier. Their son, John Lair Anderson, a Peters Colony…

  • Routh Cemetery · 6.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Routh Cemetery, a final resting place for some of the earliest settlers in this area. Brothers Jacob and George Washington Routh, along with their sister Elizabeth Thomas, were instrumental in…

  • Demonstration of the First Working Integrated Circuit · 6.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the birthplace of the microchip! Back in 1958, an engineer named Jack Kilby, working right here at Texas Instruments in Dallas, faced a huge problem. Building complex electronics meant connecting…

  • The Summer One Sliver of Germanium Changed Everything · 6.8 mi

    Right here in Dallas, on September 12, 1958, a brand-new Texas Instruments engineer named Jack Kilby switched on the first working integrated circuit. It was a tiny sliver of germanium, about the size of a fingernail,…

  • Why It's Called an Integrated Circuit · 6.8 mi

    Here is a question worth slowing down for: what is an integrated circuit, really? Think about an old-fashioned circuit first. It was a pile of separate parts. Transistors, resistors, capacitors, each one its own little…

  • Billions of Tiny Switches · 6.8 mi

    Open up any chip and the building block you find, over and over, is the transistor. A transistor is just a tiny switch. It turns on or off depending on a small voltage, and it can amplify too, but the switch is the…

  • The Rule That Predicted Sixty Years of Shrinking · 6.8 mi

    Once you can print a circuit instead of soldering it, something wild becomes possible: you can keep printing the parts smaller, and pack more of them in. In 1965, an engineer named Gordon Moore noticed the pattern and…

  • Motley, Z., Cemetery · 6.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Mesquite, and right here is the final resting place for Zachariah Motley and his family. He arrived from Kentucky in 1856 with his wife, Mary, their children, and enslaved people. They built their…

  • Hamilton Park Community · 7.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Hamilton Park, a community with a powerful story. Back in the 1950s, racial violence and displacement in Dallas forced many African American families to find new homes. Philanthropist Karl…

  • A 1950s Diner on the Dalrock Peninsula · 7.0 mi

    Out on the Dalrock peninsula, where Rowlett's neighborhoods reach toward Lake Ray Hubbard, sits a deliberately old-fashioned stop: the Dalrock Diner at 6201 Dalrock Road. It leans hard into a 1950s diner theme, the…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Conrad (Dallas) · 7.1 mi

    Conrad (Dallas, TX) placed on the 4A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Edgar Chourio (0.500 avg, 1 HR).

  • Loving, James and Margaret · 7.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Sunnyvale, and just off to the east is the final resting place of James and Margaret Loving. They were the sixteenth family to settle Dallas County, arriving in 1843 all the way from Kentucky in a…

  • The Chip That Changed the World · 7.2 mi

    Right at the southern edge of Richardson, where US 75 meets I-635, the sprawling Texas Instruments campus spills across the city line into Dallas—and it was there, on TI's Dallas ground, that a piece of the modern world…

  • Engineering a Suburb from Scratch · 7.2 mi

    The Murphy you’re driving through is a marvel of modern civil engineering, built at incredible speed. In the 1990s, this was mostly open farmland with a few houses on wells and septic systems. Transforming it into a…

  • DFW Chinatown · 7.2 mi

    As you travel through Richardson, you're in the heart of North Texas's Asian cultural scene. The landmark is DFW Chinatown, on Greenville Avenue just north of Main. The building itself is older than most people assume —…

  • Murphy, TX · 7.2 mi

    In 2006, the Murphy Police Department collaborated with 'Dateline' to conduct stings targeting alleged internet sexual predators. The operation ended tragically when one of the alleged offenders, Louis Conradt, an…

  • The Town That Wore Three Names Before 1888 · 7.2 mi

    The suburb you're rolling through spent forty years trying to settle on a name. The first families arrived here in 1846, drawn by Peters Colony land grants, and the original townsite sat on land owned by Comfort Allen…

  • When Murphy Was a Whistle-Stop Built on Cotton, Corn, and Onions · 7.2 mi

    For most of its life Murphy was a freight stop, not a suburb. From the late 1880s into the 1950s the Cotton Belt depot here turned the town into a shipping point for the surrounding Blackland Prairie farms, loading out…

  • Onions Rolled Out of Here Toward the Onion Capital of the World · 7.2 mi

    Of all the crops Murphy's depot shipped, the strangest legacy is onions. The black-soil farms along Maxwell Creek grew them by the wagonload, and the Cotton Belt cars hauled them out alongside the cotton and corn.…

  • Three Acres, Three Hundred Graves, and Most of Them Nameless · 7.2 mi

    Behind Murphy Middle School lies the oldest and largest piece of the town's memory, the Decatur, Maxwell, Murphy Cemetery, named for the three identities the community wore. James Maxwell deeded the three acres for the…

  • From Dealers in Everything to the Feed Yard Grill · 7.2 mi

    Kearney's Feed Yard, a bar and grill at 3602 North Belt Line Road, carries one of the oldest business names in town, and it's earned. A store has stood on this site since 1889, running through the decades as Ellis…

  • Richardson, TX · 7.2 mi

    In the 1840s, emigrants from Kentucky and Tennessee settled near what is now Richardson. A small settlement called Breckenridge emerged before the Civil War. In 1873, the Houston and Texas Central Railway built a depot…

  • The Church They Picked Up and Carried Across Town · 7.2 mi

    Murphy's First Baptist congregation began in a living room. In 1900, twelve years after the town took its name, a local woman named Mrs. May Cockrell gathered neighbors at her home to organize a Baptist church, and that…

  • A 42-Acre Wild Strip Down the Middle of the Suburb · 7.2 mi

    Tucked behind Kimbrough Stadium at 670 North Murphy Road, the Preserve at Maxwell Creek is the wildest thing left in a city of subdivisions. It is a 42-acre greenbelt that follows the floodplain of Maxwell Creek, the…

  • From 136 People to a City, in Barely One Lifetime · 7.2 mi

    Almost everything around you in Murphy is younger than its grandparents. As recently as 1970 the old depot town had dwindled to just 136 residents, a near-dead farm community the railroad and the cotton gins had…

  • The Town That Onions Built · 7.2 mi

    In the early 20th century Murphy was a farm town that lived by its depot. The St. Louis Southwestern — the Cotton Belt — came through in 1888 after William Murphy donated the land for the tracks and the station, and…

  • The End of a Dry Era · 7.2 mi

    For most of its history Richardson was a dry city. You could not buy alcohol here — no beer in the grocery store, no bottle of wine at the corner market — and for decades residents simply drove across the city line to…

  • Civilian Conservation Corps Company 2896 · 7.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past a piece of the New Deal, right here in Dallas. Back in 1935, this area was home to Civilian Conservation Corps Company 2896. These young men, earning wages and learning trades, worked on massive…

  • The Depression-Era Schoolhouse That Became the Whole City Government · 7.3 mi

    The old brick building at 205 North Murphy Road has done more jobs than most people. The federal Works Progress Administration, the New Deal agency that put the unemployed to work building public structures, raised…

  • Cox Cemetery · 7.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Cox Cemetery in Dallas, a resting place reflecting the pioneer heritage of this area. It holds over 400 marked graves and an estimated 100 more unmarked. The oldest tombstone here dates to 1848,…

  • Murphy School · 7.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the old Murphy School, built by the WPA in 1939. This building served as a beacon of education for just over a decade, closing its doors in 1950 due to consolidation. But its story didn't…

  • Murphy Community · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Murphy, a town that was once the heart of Texas agriculture. From 1880 to 1970, this land thrived thanks to its rich black soil and ample rain, drawing settlers from across the nation. It…

  • Murphy, TX (Collin County) · 7.4 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Murphy, Texas, a town that owes its very name to a generous landowner. Back in 1846, settlers were drawn to this area by land grants. The community was first known as Old Decator, then Maxwell's…

  • When the Affluent Suburb Made National News for Heroin · 7.6 mi

    In the mid-1990s Plano was the picture of suburban success, an affluent, fast-growing town near the top of every best-place-to-live list. Then its teenagers started dying. A cheap, unusually pure black-tar heroin from…

  • The Black Cube Where Doom Was Born · 7.6 mi

    Off LBJ Freeway here in Mesquite rises a stark black cube of an office building, the old Town East Tower, and inside it a few twenty-somethings rewired the entire video game industry. After founding id Software in 1991,…

  • The Town They Almost Named Fillmore · 7.6 mi

    You're rolling across the flattest, blackest farmland in North Texas, and that's exactly how this place got its name. The first settlers arrived here in 1845 with the Peters Colony, the same land-grant scheme that…

  • The Railroad That Turned a Crossroads Into a Town · 7.6 mi

    Before the rails came through, this was just a stop on the Shawnee Trail, the cattle route that carried Texas longhorns north across western Collin County. Then in 1872 the Houston and Texas Central Railway laid track…

  • Plano's First Brick House, Now a Place for Art · 7.6 mi

    When Celestine Saigling built her home in 1918, it was unlike anything else in this prairie town. She hired the prominent Dallas architecture firm Lang and Witchell, and what they delivered was reportedly Plano's first…

  • The Oldest House in Plano, Moved to Save It · 7.6 mi

    Plano's oldest surviving house began as a log cabin on the lonely prairie where Fox Creek meets White Rock Creek. In the late 1850s and early 1860s the Fox brothers, Julian and Charles Meredith Fox, enlarged it into a…

  • The Plano Gym That Made Two Olympic Champions · 7.6 mi

    In 1994 two former Soviet gymnastics stars, Olympic champion Valeri Liukin and world champion Yevgeny Marchenko, opened the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, WOGA, in a Plano gym on West Parker Road. What came out of…

  • Hot Air Balloons Over the Old Cotton Fields · 7.6 mi

    Every September the flat Plano sky fills with dozens of hot-air balloons rising over Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve, and for a weekend the suburb leans into being the self-styled hot air balloon capital of Texas.…

  • The Black Clay That Built Plano and Cracks Its Houses · 7.6 mi

    The ground under Plano is one of the reasons the town exists, and one of the reasons its foundations crack. This is the Blackland Prairie, a belt of dark, fertile clay soils laid down from the chalk and marl of an…

  • Site of Galloway Farmstead · 7.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Galloway Farmstead, a place that saw a family grow and adapt right here in Mesquite. Confederate veteran Benjamin Galloway and his wife Eliza arrived from Tennessee in 1872. Their son…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Richardson (Richardson) · 7.7 mi

    Richardson (Richardson, TX) placed on the 6A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Marcus Bond (3 HR).

  • DeGolyer House · 7.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the DeGolyer House in Dallas, a stunning example of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture. Everette Lee DeGolyer, a world-renowned oil geologist and book collector, moved his family here in 1936.…

  • St. Paul's Evangelical and Reformed Church · 7.7 mi · Historical Marker

    Look to your right, you're passing the site of St. Paul's Evangelical and Reformed Church. This congregation started in 1889 with just five members, all German immigrants. For years, services were held entirely in…

  • Murphy Family Cemetery · 7.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Murphy Family Cemetery, also known as the William Andrew Murphy Cemetery or Mouldon Cemetery. William A. Murphy set aside this land in 1872 for a private family burial ground. The last burial…

  • Southfork Ranch · 7.8 mi · Things to Do

    The filming location of TV's Dallas. JR Ewing lived here.

  • First Baptist Church of Sunnyvale · 7.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Sunnyvale, and right here is the site of the First Baptist Church. Its story begins back on July 3rd, 1904, when thirteen members chartered the New Hope Baptist Church. Dr. James B. Gambrell, a…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Wylie (Wylie) · 7.9 mi

    Wylie (Wylie, TX) placed on the 6A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Noah Smith (0.430 avg).

  • Warren Angus Ferris Cemetery · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Warren Angus Ferris Cemetery. Ferris himself was a New Yorker, a trapper and chronicler of the West for six years before arriving in Texas in 1836. He surveyed this very area, helping to draw the…

  • Plano Cemetery · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Plano Cemetery, a resting place with a history as layered as the town itself. It began as part of the Peters Colony land grant for Joseph Klepper, who arrived here from Illinois around 1845. This…

  • Anderson Bonner · 8.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past land once owned by Anderson Bonner, a remarkable figure who rose from slavery to become a major Dallas landowner and entrepreneur. Born enslaved in Alabama around 1839, he was brought to Texas as a…

  • First Baptist Church of Plano · 8.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the First Baptist Church of Plano, a congregation that started way back in 1852 as the Spring Creek Baptist Church. They built their first sanctuary a couple of miles south of here. When the railroad…

  • Shiloh Baptist Church · 8.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Shiloh Baptist Church in Plano. This congregation started way back in 1884 as the Mt. Zion Colored Baptist Church. Led by Reverend Z.T. Stuart, the founding members were Ammon and Lula…

  • Plano Mutual Cemetery · 8.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Plano Mutual Cemetery, one of Collin County's earliest graveyards. It began in 1852 with the burial of Dr. Lillie on his uncle William Forman's land. Over time, it grew, incorporating pioneer…

  • Zion Lutheran Church · 8.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Dallas, where German Lutherans began gathering for worship in 1874. In 1879, they organized the German Evangelical Lutheran Zions Congregation, building a structure that housed a sanctuary,…

  • Burned to a Tent City, Then Burned Again · 8.2 mi

    Twice in fourteen years, fire nearly erased downtown Plano. On August 27, 1881, flames tore through the business district along what was then Mechanic Street, destroying around fifty-two buildings and leaving the town a…

  • The University Three Engineers Built From a Cotton Field · 8.2 mi

    The sprawling campus at 800 West Campbell Road began as a recruiting problem. By the late 1950s, Texas Instruments was hiring so many scientists and engineers that it had to import most of them from other states,…

  • The Man Who Arrived on New Year's Day and Outlived His Town's First Century · 8.2 mi

    The high school named McMillen, which opened in Murphy in 2011, carries the name of the man who started the whole place. Comfort Allen McMillen was born in 1818 in Washington County, Arkansas, married Lydia Maxwell, and…

  • First Baptist Church of Murphy · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Murphy, a town founded just twelve years before this story begins. In 1900, a local woman named May Cockrell saw a need for a Baptist church. She gathered friends and a preacher in her own home to…

  • White Rock Pump Station · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the White Rock Pump Station, a beautiful Renaissance Revival building designed and built by the city of Dallas back in 1911. Think about the early 1900s: Dallas was growing fast, and droughts were a…

  • Plano National Bank/I.O.O.F. Lodge Building · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the historic heart of Plano, folks! Back in 1895, a fire wiped out the shared building of the Plano National Bank and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge. But these folks were resilient! They…

  • William and Charlotte Stone House, Stonehaven · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the William and Charlotte Stone House, a testament to early 20th-century design. William Stone, inspired by architectural books and Frank Lloyd Wright himself, drew up the plans for this home on the…

  • Fred Schimelpfenig Building · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the old Fred Schimelpfenig Building, a Plano landmark since 1884. Built by the Sanger Brothers, it became the town's most prosperous dry goods store under Frederick Schimelpfenig himself. Though he…

  • W. D. McFarlin Building · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the W.D. McFarlin Building, one of Plano's oldest brick structures. Though it burned in 1895, W.D. McFarlin rebuilt it and it served as a hub for businesses like drug stores and grocery stores for 65…

  • Mathews General Store · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Mathews General Store. This was one of several brick buildings erected on Mechanic Street after an October 1895 fire. S. J. And Nancy Mathews came to Plano in 1893 and opened a store across the…

  • Mount Calvary Cemetery · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Dallas, and just off to your right is Mount Calvary Cemetery. This burial ground has been serving settlers since the 1840s. The oldest marked grave here belongs to Amanda L. Houx, who died way…

  • Lady of White Rock Lake · 8.3 mi · Things to Do

    Since the 1930s drivers along White Rock Lake report picking up a soaking-wet woman in a white dress. She asks for a ride home then vanishes leaving the seat…

  • The Trolley Stop That Became a Museum · 8.3 mi

    At 901 East 15th Street, beside Haggard Park, sits a modest brick building that was once Plano's window on the wider world. Built in 1908 for the Texas Traction Company, it served as the passenger depot and electrical…

  • Officer Richard Houston II Memorial Highway · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker

    Interstate Six Thirty Five inside the Mesquite city limits is named for Officer Richard Houston the Second of the Mesquite Police Department. On the third of December, two thousand twenty one, Houston answered a…

  • Texas Electric Railway Station · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past what's left of Plano's early 20th-century transportation hub. Built in 1908 as the Texas Traction Company station, this building saw passengers and freight come and go on the North Texas electric…

  • First Christian Church of Plano · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Plano's first Christian Church, established in the mid-1850s. It started on the Barnett farm, with a small building that served as both a school and a place of worship. Imagine, traveling…

  • A Swimming Pool Shaped Like Texas · 8.4 mi

    At 901 Springbrook Drive, in the old Dallas North Estates neighborhood, is a swimming pool built in the exact outline of the state of Texas, Panhandle, Big Bend, Gulf coast and all. It was envisioned by Texas oil tycoon…

  • White Rock Dam, Reservoir and Park · 8.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of White Rock Lake, a crucial water source for Dallas that started as a solution to the city's thirst. By the early 1900s, natural springs just weren't cutting it for a growing Dallas. So,…

  • Saigling House · 8.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Plano, where the arrival of the railroad in the 1870s spurred growth. In 1881, Charles and Celestine Saigling moved here from Houston, drawn by business opportunities. C.F. Saigling became a civic…

  • Aldridge House · 8.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Aldridge House, built in 1918 in Plano's first residential neighborhood. It was home to C.C. Aldridge, an innovator in cotton seed strains who also served on the city council. This Prairie-style…

  • Plano High School and Gymnasium · 8.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Plano High School and Gymnasium. The Plano Institute opened on this site in 1882 before a public school system existed in Plano. In 1891, city officials bought the school and took over operations.…

  • McMillen Cemetery · 8.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Murphy, in Collin County. Look for the McMillen Cemetery, established in 1901. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2010.

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