Dallas: History

Pre-20th-Century History

In 1839, John Neely Bryan, a Tennessee lawyer with a healthy case of wanderlust, stumbled onto the three forks of the Trinity River, a site he thought had the makings of a good trading post and maybe a town. Bryan eventually built a cabin and sketched out a town. Dallas County was created in 1846; both city and town were named for George Mifflin Dallas, a Pennsylvanian who served as US vice president under James Polk.

Dallas grew slowly for the next 30 years, though not for a lack of trying. From its start, Dallas had a flair for self promotion, and Bryan saw to it the city was placed on maps before there was much of a town. A group of French artists and intellectuals arrived in the 1850s to establish an artists' colony known as La Réunion just west of the fledgling city. The community did not last, but some of its members stayed, their presence giving Dallas a sophisticated edge on the frontier.

In the 1870s, at a Dallas legislator's suggestion, the state decided Dallas would be the junction for the north-south Missouri, Kansas & Texas rail line and the east-west Texas & Pacific Railroad. The first train arrived in 1872, sparking a boom that ensured Dallas' pre-eminence as a trade centre. Merchants from New York, Chicago, Boston and St Louis invested heavily in the city.

Modern History

By 1920, with cotton prices soaring, land values had climbed to US$300.00 an acre. And when the East Texas Oil Field was struck in 1930, Dallas became the financial centre for the oil industry.

In the post-WWII era, Dallas continued to build on its reputation as a citadel of commerce. The 1950s were marked by the rise of pioneering high-tech company Texas Instruments, creators of many advances including the integrated circuit computer chip, the first single-chip microprocessor and the first electronic hand-held calculator.

Dallas' image took a dive when President John F Kennedy was assassinated during a November 1963 visit to the city. Gradually, however, the city reclaimed its Texas swagger with help from a few new chest-thumping sources of civic pride. The Dallas Cowboys won the first of five Super Bowl titles in 1972, and their success on the field - coupled with the popularity of the skimpily attired Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders - helped earn the Cowboys the unofficial title of 'America's Team'.

And then came that little ol' namesake TV show, which ran from 1978 to 1991 and was the top-rated series in the US from 1980 to 1982.

Recent History

The Dallas Cowboys won the Super Bowl three times in the 90s, keeping the city in the spotlight. The long hot summer of 1998 again brought Dallas into the news, with temperatures of at least 38°C (100°F) for 29 consecutive days, widespread crop failures and more than 100 deaths. After a small telecom boom and bust in the late 90s, Dallas now has one of the largest concentration of corporation headquarters anywhere in the US. Urban sprawl connects the city with Fort Worth, forming a metropolitan area of more than five million people. Further growth is only to be expected, with nine highrises and a new opera house in development.

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