The twentieth century turned Grand Prairie into an aviation town. In 1941 a great aircraft plant opened on the prairie, and through World War II it built P-51 Mustang fighters and B-24 Liberator bombers; the successor plants kept the city in the aerospace business for decades, building Cold War jets and missiles. After the war the prairie filled with subdivisions and shopping centers as the Metroplex grew around it, and in 1996 Lone Star Park opened its grandstand, bringing thoroughbred racing to the city — it hosted the Breeders' Cup in 2004. Farms to fighter planes to finish lines: the prairie kept reinventing what ran across it.
The land here was Peters' Colony prairie before the Civil War, a stretch of the great Texas grassland crossed by trading paths between Dallas and Fort Worth. In 1863 the settler Alexander McRae Dechman founded the community first known as Dechman; when the Texas & Pacific Railroad arrived in 1876 it became a depot town, and in 1877 it was renamed Grand Prairie for the grassland it sat on. The town incorporated in 1909, a farming and ranching crossroads on the rail line at the heart of what would become the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
Why People Visit Grand Prairie Texas
- Spend a day at Loyd Park on Joe Pool Lake, with trails, campsites, and boating.
- Catch live thoroughbred and quarter-horse racing at Lone Star Park during the spring and fall meets.
- Walk the historic downtown around the Texas & Pacific rail depot.
- Cool off at the Epic Waters indoor waterpark, or browse the weekend stalls at Traders Village.
- Take in the prairie horizon and the lakes that frame the city north and south.
