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Waco: Stop and Stay a While

© Bob Thaxton

If you’ve traveled Interstate 35 between the Dallas-Fort Worth area and Austin or San Antonio, you’ve been through Waco. It lies roughly halfway between the two metropolitan clusters. And its location makes it a popular place to stop for a tank of gas or a quick meal. But Waco deserves more than 30 to 45 minutes of a traveler’s time. It has plenty to offer as a destination for a weekend getaway or a weeklong vacation.

The city of Waco’s founding dates back to 1849 when blocks were laid out and downtown lots were sold for $5 apiece. However, the city’s site, near the confluence of the Brazos and Bosque rivers, was inhabited long before people of European descent began settling there. The site was the location of an ancient agricultural village of Waco Indians. When McLennan County was organized in 1850, the county seat was designated to be the town of “Waco Village.” When the little city was incorporated in 1856, its name was shortened to Waco.

By 1859, Waco had a population of 749 residents. The town was growing rapidly, largely because of its location in the middle of a fertile region with a thriving plantation economy. When Texas seceded from the Union and the Civil War ensued, Waco and the surrounding area sent 17 companies of soldiers to fight for the Confederacy. Although the town’s economy declined during the Civil War, it thrived after Reconstruction. A spur of the Chisholm Trail went through Waco, and by 1871, an estimated 600,000 to 700,000 head of cattle had passed through the town on trail drives to Kansas. Nicknamed “Six-Shooter Junction,” Waco accommodated cowboys with an abundance of saloons and gambling halls and a red light district called the Reservation.

Around the turn of the century, Waco went from being called Six-Shooter Junction to a more dignified nickname, the Athens of Texas, because of its institutions of higher education including Baylor University, Paul Quinn College and Add-Ran College which in 1902 changed its name to Texas Christian University and later moved to Fort Worth. Baylor University, with its enrollment of more than 13,000 students and its reputation for educational excellence, continues to bring many visitors to Waco.

Not far from the university, just off I-35 in the downtown area, is the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum. The Rangers date back to before Texas became a republic and later a state. In fact, the Texas Rangers are the oldest police force in the United States. Their history is replete with the names of famous outlaws they put behind bars or in coffins – names like Sam Bass, John Wesley Hardin, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. And the museum houses a wide variety of memorabilia from the organization’s 178 years of bringing law and order to the Lone Star State.

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