One town made from two — a North Texas city that started as a feud between two railroad camps and got its name from a man who'd never been to Texas. Garland sits on the Blackland prairie northeast of Dallas, where two railroads once built rival depots a mile apart and the towns around them, Duck Creek and Embree, fought for years over which would win. In 1887 a congressman ended it by dropping a post office on neutral ground between them and calling the new town Garland. Cotton, onions on the rail line, and Texas hats since — this page tells the story.
What's with Duck Creek and Embree? They're the two towns that became Garland — and they couldn't stand each other. When the railroads built rival depots a mile apart in 1886, Embree grew up around the Santa Fe stop and a new Duck Creek around the Katy stop, and the rivalry got bitter enough that, by local accounts, men started carrying guns and neighbors stopped speaking across the divide. The fight was really over the post office and the right to incorporate. Congressman Joseph Abbott broke the deadlock in 1887 by putting the post office on neutral ground halfway between the depots and giving the place a brand-new name nobody could claim — Garland — so that neither town "won." That's why Garland's real origin story isn't a founding so much as a peace treaty: one town made from two.
Why People Visit Garland Texas
People come to Garland for its easy place in the Metroplex — a historic square and a real founding story, lake recreation on Ray Hubbard, and green preserves — all minutes northeast of Dallas. It's practical, green, and neighborly: the town that two railroads accidentally built.
