People have lived along this stretch of the river since long before any survey: the Coahuiltecan peoples made the Tamaulipan brushland home. In 1797 the Spanish crown granted the Santa Anita Ranch to José Manuel Gómez, and the land passed down through the Ballí family for generations. Salomé Ballí, heir to the grant, married the Irish-born businessman John McAllen in 1861, and the spread became the McAllen Ranch — sheep, cattle, and brush country running down to the Rio Grande, with the site of the future city inside its fences.
A land-grant ranch, a railroad town, a bridge between nations, and a sky full of green jays — McAllen wears its story lightly, the way the palms wear the wind. From the Santa Anita grant of 1797 to the bi-national valley of today, every era left something worth keeping: the palms, the music, the citrus gold, the family names on both banks of the river. City of Palms. Heart of the Rio Grande Valley. Wear a little of it wherever the road takes you.
Why People Visit McAllen
McAllen offers something rare — a subtropical Texas city where world-class birding, citrus country, and a living bi-national culture all sit within easy reach. Visitors come for the palms and the birds, stay for the food and the warmth, and leave understanding why this corner of Texas calls itself the City of Palms.
