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.
The modern city arrived on rails. Irrigation companies began watering the Delta lands around 1900, the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railway pushed through the ranch in 1904, and on December 5 of that year the McAllen Townsite Company platted a town named for the old rancher. A rival townsite — East McAllen — rose two miles away in 1907, won the post office, and became the McAllen that incorporated in 1911. In 1916, during the border troubles of the Mexican Revolution era, some 20,000 National Guard troops camped here, and the soldier payrolls put the young town permanently on the map.
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.
