Our Garland logo carries the Texas longhorn and Lone Star over "Texas Republic, Est. 1845," the same emblem every Merlin Classics Texas place wears. The longhorn and star are the Lone Star State's shorthand — toughness, independence, the open range — printed black-and-white with the worn look of an old barn brand or a rodeo poster. What makes this one Garland is the place behind it: the two railroad towns, the Blackland cotton, the Texas hats. On a tee or a cap it reads less like a souvenir and more like a piece of North Texas — Est. 1845, worn plain.
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.
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.
