WACO'S RICH HISTORY is a story woven of mammoths, Native Americans, pioneers, Texas Rangers and even a modern-day president set in a unique location on the juncture of the Brazos and Bosque Rivers.
This Heart of Texas city is truly the Crossroads of Texas. If you stand on Lover’s Leap in our famed Cameron Park, you are standing on the convergence of two biomes – the farmland of the Blackland Prairie and the limestone ridge marking the beginning of the Edwards Plateau.
Waco’s cultural history also is a crossroads where the Wild West meets the Old South. Once known as Six Shooter Junction for its association with the cattle trade, Waco also was called the “Athens of Texas” when it was home to the first co-educational school, now Baylor University, west of the Mississippi River.
But long before the peaceful Waco Indians lived in beehive-shaped huts along the river or droves of cattle crossed the Brazos River here along the Chisholm Trail, mammoths trekked our land.
WACO MAMMOTH SITE
They laid dormant and undiscovered for thousands of years. Then in 1978, two young men walking along a dry river bed found the bones of two mammoths, a discovery that eventually unearthed what is now one of the most important paleontological sites in the world.
At last count, some 24 Columbian mammoths have been found after what scientists believe was a massive thunderstorm that engulfed the herd in a muddy gully of the Brazos and Bosque Rivers.
The mammoth site, jointly owned by Baylor University and the City of Waco, is not yet open to the public. However, scientists around the world have visited Waco to tour it. The site has met the criteria to be include in the national parks system, and plans are underway on building facilities there. For more information, visit the City's official mammoth Web site.
WACO INDIANS
Fast forward a few thousand years to meet the Waco Indians, touted as the first inhabitants of the area. These settled agrarians lived in grass houses 20- to 25-feet tall. The well-made homes lasted for years while they farmed peaches, melons and vegetables on the fertile land.
The quiet Waco tribe became the namesake for the community. The word Waco has been spelled at least 32 different ways, including Huaco, Wacoah and Quchaco, throughout our history.
The Waco Indians lived in the area for several decades beginning in the 1770s before being driven out by the Cherokee, but they left behind traces of their lifestyle. The round footprints of their houses are studied today by archaeology students using heat maps and modern technology.
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George B. Erath was an early Texas Ranger who surveyed the unsettled land here. |
TEXAS RANGERS & WACO PIONEERS
In 1837, Texas Rangers established an outpost at Waco, but the plan was later abandoned. The Torrey brothers established an Indian trading post in 1844 eight miles south of Waco Village and sold it to George Barnard in 1848. The post included several log houses.
George B. Erath, one of the first resident Texas Rangers began helping developer Jacob De Cordova survey the land. Erath also mapped out land along the Bosque River for his friend Neil McLennan, a Scottish Highlander who settled here in 1845 and became the county’s namesake.
These early economic developers recruited settlers and sold lots for $5 apiece. They even attracted the attention of famed Texas Ranger and frontiersman Shapley P. Ross, who was granted free land and access to crossing the Brazos River in his ferry.
These early days brought people, and by 1850, 749 residents lived here, according to the Texas Almanac. The city would endure the Civil War and recover relatively quickly for an era of prosperity.
 SUSPENSION BRIDGE
By 1870, Waco claimed as its residents more than 3,000 people and saw the opening of perhaps its most famous landmark, the Suspension Bridge. At 475 feet, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world and cost $141,000.
Originally a toll bridge, some 600,000 head of cattle crossed over it, and the cattle drives continued until 1885 when the Chisholm Trail closed.
One year after the bridge was built, the cotton industry arrived and boomed in Waco bringing the railroad. Waco was home to the largest inland cotton market in the world in 1890.
Wacoans even organized the Cotton Palace, a festival to pay homage to the prosperity that cotton brought to the city. The celebration became known throughout the South as the 1913 Cotton Palace Exposition drew half a million people.
 PRESIDENTS & PRINCES
The 20th century brought manufacturing to Waco, where producers of hats, sewing machines, mattresses, coffins and carriages called Waco home. Today, the city is home to a diverse economic landscape that includes manufacturing headquarters for nationally known companies.
Both the state’s and the city’s first skyscraper was built in downtown Waco in 1911. The 21-story ALICO building withstood the deadly 1953 tornado and still provides office space to Waco workers.
In recent years, this Old West town has grown up to host President George W. Bush and a flurry of world leaders who have visited him at his Crawford-area ranch. The president held his economic and North American summits at Baylor University.
Join us for more progress!
WACO'S HISTORIC HOMES
The Historic Waco Foundation preserves the heritage and history of Waco through five period homes.
For tour information, call 753-5166.
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Earle-Napier-Kinnard
1869
Greek Revival
814 S. Fourth St. |
East Terrace
1884
Italianate Villa
MLK Boulevard at Mills Street |
Fort House
1876
Greek Revival
503 S. Fourth St. |
McCulloch House
1872
Greek Revival
407 Columbus |
Hoffman House
HWF office
810 S. Fourth St. |
 Earle-Harrison House & Pape Gardens
Waco’s only restored antebellum home open to the public, the Greek Revival-style mansion is located at 1901 N. Fifth St. The house is prized for its botanical gardens and grounds that include a 75-foot rose arbor. For more information, call (254) 753-2032.
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