Waco, Texas

Indigenous peoples occupied areas along the river for thousands of years. In historic times, the area of present-day Waco was occupied by the Wichita Indian tribe known as the "Waco" (Spanish: Hueco or Huaco).

In 1824, Thomas M. Duke was sent to explore the area after violence erupted between the Waco people and the European settlers. His report to Stephen F. Austin, described the Waco village:[12]

This town is situated on the West Bank of the river. They have a spring almost as cold as ice itself. All we want is some Brandy and Sugar to have Ice Toddy. They have about 400 acres (1.6 km²) planted in corn, beans, pumpkins, and melons and that tended in good order. I think they cannot raise more than One Hundred Warriors.

— Thomas M. Duke, Stephen F. Austin Papers

After further violence, Austin halted an attempt to destroy their village in retaliation. In 1825, he made a treaty with them. The Waco were eventually pushed out of the region, settling north near present-day Fort Worth. In 1872, they were moved onto a reservation in Oklahoma with other Wichita tribes. In 1902, the Waco received allotments of land and became official US citizens. Neil McLennan settled in an area near the South Bosque River in 1838.[13] Jacob De Cordova bought McLennan's property[14] and hired a former Texas Ranger and surveyor named George B. Erath to inspect the area.[15] In 1849, Erath designed the first block of the city. Property owners wanted to name the city Lamartine, but Erath convinced them to name the area Waco Village, after the Indians who had lived there.[16] In March 1849, Shapley Prince Ross, the father of future Governor Lawrence Sullivan Ross, built the first house in Waco, a double-log cabin, on a bluff overlooking the springs. His daughter Kate was the first settler child born in Waco. Because of this, Ross is considered to have been the founder of Waco, Texas.[17]

Waco in 1886

Suspension Bridge, Waco, Texas

In 1866, Waco's leading citizens embarked on an ambitious project to build the first bridge to span the wide Brazos River. They formed the Waco Bridge Company to build the 475-foot (145 m) brick Waco Suspension Bridge, which was completed in 1870. The company commissioned a firm owned by John Augustus Roebling in Trenton, New Jersey, to supply the bridge's cables and steelwork and contracted with Mr. Thomas M. Griffith, a civil engineer based in New York, for the supervisory engineering work.[18] The economic effects of the Waco bridge were immediate and large. The cowboys and cattle-herds following the Chisholm Trail north, crossed the Brazos River at Waco. Some chose to pay the Suspension Bridge toll, while others floated their herds down the river. The population of Waco grew rapidly, as immigrants now had a safe crossing for their horse-drawn carriages and wagons. Since 1971, the bridge has been open only to pedestrian traffic and is in the National Register of Historic Places.

Waco was the original intended western terminus of the Texas and St. Louis Railway, with the town having been reached in 1881.[19] However, the line was extended further west to Gatesville a year later.[20][21] This trackage later became the core of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company, commonly known as the Cotton Belt.[22]

In the late 19th century, a red-light district called the "Reservation" grew up in Waco, and prostitution was regulated by the city. The Reservation was suppressed in the early 20th century. In 1885, the soft drink Dr Pepper was invented in Waco at Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store.[23]

In 1845, Baylor University was founded in Independence, Texas. It moved to Waco in 1886 and merged with Waco University, becoming an integral part of the city. The university's Strecker Museum was also the oldest continuously operating museum in the state until it closed in 2003, and the collections moved to the new Mayborn Museum Complex. In 1873, AddRan College was founded by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark in Fort Worth. The school moved to Waco in 1895, changing its name to Add-Ran Christian University and taking up residence in the empty buildings of Waco Female College. Add-Ran changed its name to Texas Christian University in 1902 and left Waco after the school's main building burned down in 1910.[24] TCU was offered a 50-acre (200,000 m²) campus and $200,000 by the city of Fort Worth to relocate there.[24]

Racial segregation was common in Waco. For example, Greenwood Cemetery was established in the 1870s as a segregated burial place. Black graves were divided from white ones by a fence which remained standing until 2016.[25]

The Dr Pepper Museum is one of Waco's tourist attractions.

In the 1890s, William Cowper Brann published the highly successful Iconoclast newspaper in Waco. One of his targets was Baylor University. Brann revealed Baylor officials had been importing South American children recruited by missionaries and making house-servants out of them. Brann was shot in the back by Tom Davis, a Baylor supporter. Brann then wheeled, drew his pistol, and killed Davis. Brann was helped home by his friends, and died there of his wounds.

In 1894, the first Cotton Palace fair and exhibition center was built to reflect the dominant contribution of the agricultural cotton industry in the region. Since the end of the Civil War, cotton had been cultivated in the Brazos and Bosque valleys, and Waco had become known nationwide as a top producer. Over the next 23 years, the annual exposition would welcome over eight million attendees. The opulent building which housed the month-long exhibition was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1910. In 1931, the exposition fell prey to the Great Depression, and the building was torn down. However, the annual Cotton Palace Pageant continues, hosted in late April in conjunction with the Brazos River Festival.

On September 15, 1896, "The Crash" took place about 15 miles (24 km) north of Waco. "The Crash at Crush" was a publicity stunt done by the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad company (known as M-K-T or "Katy"), featuring two locomotives intentionally set to a head-on collision. Meant to be a family fun event with food, games, and entertainment, the Crash turned deadly when both boilers exploded simultaneously, sending metal flying in the air. Three people died and dozens were injured.[26]

Washington Avenue Bridge (postcard, c. 1908), built in 1902, it was the longest single-span steel bridge in the world.

An African American man named Sank Majors was hanged from the Washington Avenue Bridge by a white mob in 1905. Another man, Jim Lawyer, was attacked with a whip because he objected to the lynching. In both cases the mob was assisted by Texas Rangers.[27]

Lynching of Jesse Washington in Waco on May 15, 1916. He was repeatedly lowered and raised onto a fire for about two hours.

In 1916, a Black teenager named Jesse Washington was tortured, mutilated, and burned to death in the town square by a mob that seized him from the courthouse, where he had been convicted of murdering a white woman, to which he confessed. About 15,000 spectators, mostly citizens of Waco, were present. The commonly named Waco Horror drew international condemnation and became the cause célèbre of the nascent NAACP's anti-lynching campaign. In 2006, the Waco City Council officially condemned the lynching, which took place without opposition from local political or judicial leaders; the mayor and chief of police were spectators. On the centenary of the lynching, May 15, 2016, the mayor apologized in a ceremony to some of Washington's descendants. A historical marker is being erected.[28]

In the 1920s, despite the popularity of the Ku Klux Klan and high numbers of lynchings throughout Texas, Waco's authorities attempted to respond to the NAACP's campaign and institute more protections for African Americans or others threatened with mob violence and lynching.[29] On May 26, 1922, Jesse Thomas was shot, his body dragged down Franklin street by a crowd some 6,000 strong and the corpse then burned in the public square behind city hall.[30] In 1923, Waco's sheriff Leslie Stegall protected Roy Mitchell, an African American coerced into confessing to multiple murders, from mob lynching. Mitchell was the last Texan to be publicly executed in Texas, and also the last to be hanged before the introduction of the electric chair.[29] In the same year, the Texas Legislature created the Tenth Civil Court of Appeals and placed it in Waco; it is now known as the 10th Court of Appeals.

In 1937, Grover C. Thomsen and R. H. Roark created a soft-drink called "Sun Tang Red Cream Soda". This would become known as the soft drink Big Red.

On May 5, 1942, Waco Army Air Field opened as a basic pilot training school, and on June 10, 1949, the name was changed to Connally Air Force Base in memory of Col. James T. Connally, a local pilot killed in Japan in 1945. The name changed again in 1951 to the James Connally Air Force Base. The base closed in May 1966 and is now the location of Texas State Technical College, formerly Texas State Technical Institute, since 1965. The airfield is still in operation, now known as TSTC Waco Airport, and was used by Air Force One when former US President George W. Bush visited his Prairie Chapel Ranch, also known as the Western White House, in Crawford, Texas.

In 1951, Harold Goodman founded the American Income Life Insurance Company.

Alamo Plaza Courts, tourist apartments, Waco c. 1939

On May 11, 1953, a violent F5 tornado hit downtown Waco, killing 114.[31] As of 2011, it remains the 11th-deadliest tornado in U.S. history and tied for the deadliest in Texas state history.[32] It was the first tornado tracked by radar and helped spur the creation of a nationwide storm surveillance system. A granite monument featuring the names of those killed was placed downtown in 2004.[33]

In 1964, the Texas Department of Public Safety designated Waco as the site for the state-designated official museum of the legendary Texas Rangers law enforcement agency founded in 1823. In 1976, it was further designated the official Hall of Fame for the Rangers and renamed the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum. Renovations by the Waco government earned this building green status, the first Waco government-led project of its nature. The construction project has fallen under scrutiny for expanding the building over unmarked human graves.

In 1978, bones were discovered emerging from the mud at the confluence of the Brazos and Bosque Rivers. Excavations revealed the bones were 68,000 years old and belonged to a species of mammoth. Eventually, the remains of at least 24 mammoths, one camel, and one large cat were found at the site, making it one of the largest findings of its kind. Scholars have puzzled over why such a large herd had been killed at once. The bones are on display at the Waco Mammoth National Monument, part of the National Park Service.

The Mount Carmel Center burning on April 19, 1993

On February 28, 1993, a shootout occurred in which six Branch Davidians and four agents of the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms died. After 51 days, on April 19, 1993, the standoff ended when the Branch Davidians' facility, referred to as Mt. Carmel, was set ablaze, thirteen miles from Waco.[34] 74 people, including leader David Koresh, died in the blaze.

During the presidency of George W. Bush, Waco was the home to the White House Press Center. The press center provided briefing and office facilities for the press corps whenever Bush visited his "Western White House" Prairie Chapel Ranch near Crawford, about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Waco.

On May 17, 2015, a violent dispute among rival biker gangs broke out at Twin Peaks restaurant. The Waco police intervened, with nine dead and 18 injured in the incident. More than 170 were arrested.[35] No bystanders, Twin Peak employees, or officers were killed. This was the most high-profile criminal incident since the Waco siege, and the deadliest shootout in the city's history.

Downtown Waco is relatively small when compared to other larger Texas cities, such as Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, or even Fort Worth, El Paso, or Austin. The 22-story ALICO Building, completed in 1910, is the tallest building in Waco.[37]

Waco experiences a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa), characterized by hot summers and generally mild winters. Some 90 °F (32 °C) temperatures have been observed in every month of the year. The record low temperature is −5 °F (−21 °C), set on January 31, 1949; the record high temperature is 114 °F (46 °C), set on July 23, 2018.[38]

Though the rest of McLennan County is deeply Republican, in statewide elections, Waco is a swing city. It voted for Republican Donald Trump in 2016, but flipped to Joe Biden in 2020.

Waco's 22-story ALICO building

The Waco Suspension Bridge

Waco is served by the Waco-McLennan County Library system.[55] The Armstrong Browning Library, on the campus of Baylor University, houses collections of English poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.[56] The Red Men Museum and Library houses the archives of the Improved Order of Red Men.[57] The Lee Lockwood Library and Museum is home to the Waco Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.[58] The Waco Mammoth National Monument is a paleontological site and museum managed by the National Park Service in conjunction with the City of Waco and Baylor University.[59]

Other museums in Waco include the Dr Pepper Museum, Texas Sports Hall of Fame, Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, and the Mayborn Museum Complex.

A seven-mile scenic riverwalk along the east and west banks of the Brazos River stretches from the Baylor campus to Cameron Park Zoo. This multiuse walking and jogging trail passes underneath the Waco Suspension Bridge and captures the peaceful charm of the river.[60] Lake Waco is a reservoir along the western border of the city. Cameron Park is a 416-acre (168 ha) urban park featuring playgrounds, picnic areas, a cross-country running track, and a disc golf course.[61] The park also contains Waco's 52-acre (21 ha) zoo, the Cameron Park Zoo.[62]

The Magnolia Market in Waco

Notable attractions in Waco include the Hawaiian Falls water park and the Grand Lodge of Texas, one of the largest Grand Lodges in the world.[63] The Waco Suspension Bridge is a single-span suspension bridge built in 1870, crossing the Brazos River.[64] Indian Spring Park marks the location of the origin of the town of Waco, where the Huaco Indians had settled on the bank of the river, at the location of an icy cold spring.[65] The Doris Miller Memorial is a public art installation along the banks of the Brazos River.[66] A nine-foot bronze statue of Miller was unveiled on December 7, 2017, temporarily located at nearby Bledsoe-Miller Park.[67]

Downtown Waco is home to Magnolia Market, a shopping complex containing specialty stores, food trucks, and event space, set in repurposed grain silos originally built in 1950 for the Brazos Valley Cotton Oil Company.[68] The Magnolia Market, operated by Chip and Joanna Gaines of the HGTV TV series Fixer Upper, saw 1.2 million visitors in 2016.[69]

• Dwight Johnson, born and raised in Waco, was an NFL Defensive lineman for the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants
• Derrick Johnson, born and raised in Waco, was an NFL Linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs
• Lee Ballanfant, born in Waco, was a Major League Baseball umpire
• Kwame Cavil, born in Waco, is a Canadian Football League wide receiver for the Edmonton Eskimos[75]
• Perrish Cox, former NFL cornerback for the Tennessee Titans, was born in Waco, grew up in Waco, and went to University High School[76]
• Zach Duke, graduated from Midway High School in Waco, is a former major league baseball pitcher for nine teams between 2005 and 2019
• Dave Eichelberger, born in Waco, is a professional golfer who has won several tournaments on the PGA Tour and Champions Tour levels[77]
• Casey Fossum, graduated from Midway High School in Waco, pitched in Major League Baseball player for five different teams over nine seasons[78]
• Ken Grandberry, born in Waco, is a former NFL running back for the Chicago Bears[79]
• Rufus Granderson, born in Waco, is a former AFL defensive tackle for the Dallas Texans[80]
• Will Grant, swimmer for the US National Junior Team, graduated from Waco High School and swam at Harvard.[81]
• Ty Harrington is the head coach for the Texas State University baseball team. He was born in Waco and attended Midway High School[82]
• Andy Hawkins, born in Waco, is a former MLB pitcher[83]
• Sherrill Headrick, born in Waco, came to the American Football League's Dallas Texans as an undrafted linebacker[84]
• Michael Johnson, United States sprinter; graduated from Baylor University in 1990[85]
• Jim Jones, born in Waco, American football player[86]
• Rob Powell, fitness coach who has two certificates of Guinness World Records
• Dominic Rhodes, born in Waco, is a professional football running back who played for the Virginia Destroyers of the United Football League[87]
• John Richards, born in Waco, is a former racing driver and motorcycle racer
• Bill Rogers, born in Waco, is a professional golfer who won the 1981 Open Championship and was voted 1981 PGA Tour Player of the Year
• LaDainian Tomlinson is a former NFL football player for the New York Jets and San Diego Chargers; born in Rosebud, he grew up in Waco, and went to University High School[88]
• D. L. Wilson, born in Waco, is an American professional stock car racing driver

• Kevin Belcher August 8, 1967, CF-RF MLB 1990–1990[89]
• Lance Berkman October 2, 1976, LF-RF MLB 1999–2011[90]
• Buzz Dozier August 31, 1927, P MLB 1947–1949[91]
• Louis Drucke March 12, 1888, P MLB 1909–1912[92]
• Boob Fowler November 11, 1900, SS MLB 1923–1926[93]
• Charlie Gorin June 2, 1928, P MLB 1954–1955[94]
• Donald Harris December 11, 1967, CF-RF MLB 1991–1993[95]
• Al Jackson December 25, 1935, P MLB 1959–1969[96]
• Scott Jordan May 27, 1963, CF MLB 1988–1988[97]
• Rudy Law July 10, 1956, OF MLB 1978–1986[98]
• Dutch Meyer 10 June 1915 2B MLB 1940–1946
• Arthur Rhodes October 24, 1969, P MLB 1991–2011[99]
• Schoolboy Rowe November 1, 1910, P MLB 1933–1949[100]
• Ted Wilborn December 16, 1958, OF MLB 1979–1980[101]
• Andy Cooper April 24, 1898 P NLB 1920–1939[102]

• Jules Bledsoe, stage and screen actor and singer. When the Broadway premiere of Show Boat was delayed in 1927 by Ziegfeld, Paul Robeson became unavailable, so Bledsoe stepped in. He played and sang the role of Joe, introducing "Ol' Man River"[103]
• Shannon Elizabeth, actress of American Pie fame, was born in Houston and grew up in Waco[104]
• Chip and Joanna Gaines, Waco area home renovators and remodelers came to national attention with their TV show Fixer Upper. They have since expanded into a variety of local developments and are a major tourism draw for the Waco area
• Peri Gilpin, actress, best known for her television character Roz Doyle on the series Frasier, was born in Waco and raised in Dallas[105]
• Texas Guinan, Hollywood actress from 1917 to 1933. She was active in vaudeville and theater, and was in many movies (often as the gun-toting hero in silent westerns, more than a match for any man). She also had a successful career as a hostess in nightclubs and speakeasies in New York City[106]
• Anne Gwynne, Hollywood actress who starred in a number of films of the 1940s; she was born in Waco
• Thomas Harris, author of The Silence of the Lambs, was a student at Baylor University, and covered the police beat for the Waco Tribune-Herald[107]
• Jennifer Love Hewitt, actress, was born in Waco[108]
• Terrence Malick, director of The Thin Red Line, was raised in Waco. He also directed The Tree of Life, which was set in the town of Waco in the 1950s[109]
• Steve Martin, comedian, actor, author and musician, was born in Waco[110]
• Kevin Reynolds, director (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Count of Monte Cristo, Waterworld), born and raised in Waco[111]

• Wade Bowen, Texas country artist and former lead singer of Wade Bowen and West 84, was born and raised in Waco[112]
• David Crowder Band (1996–2012), a Christian worship band, is from Waco[113]
• Johnny Gimble, two time Grammy Award winning pioneer in Texas Swing and country music had the first locally made television variety show KWTX-TV. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1968 to become a top rated session musician with Chet Atkins and others. Johnny's son Dick Gimble carries on the family tradition of music as a tenured professor at McLennan Community College for nearly four decades, and his granddaughter Emily Gimble carries on the tradition as an Austin, Texas musician
• Pat Green, country music singer-songwriter, was raised in Waco and his parents still reside there[114]
• Roy Hargrove, a Grammy Award-winning jazz trumpeter, was born and raised in Waco[115]
• Kari Jobe, a two-time Dove Award-winning Christian singer-songwriter was born in Waco and was raised in Watauga and Hurst, Texas[116]
• Willie Nelson, country music singer-songwriter, was born in nearby Abbott and attended Baylor University for one year[117]
• Ted Nugent, guitarist, along with his wife Shemane and son Rocco Nugent, live in Waco[118] He filmed his VH1 show Surviving Nugent on his ranch in nearby China Spring.
• Domingo Ortiz, percussionist for the band Widespread Panic, grew up in Waco[119]
• Bill Payne, keyboardist for the rock band Little Feat, was born and raised in the Waco area[120]
• Billy Joe Shaver, Country songwriter ("Honky Tonk Heroes") and singer ("Old Chunk of Coal"), lives in Waco[121]
• Ashlee Simpson, pop music singer, was born in Waco and raised in Dallas[122]
• Jessica Simpson, pop music singer, was born in Abilene and raised in Waco and Dallas
• Strange Fruit Project, an underground hip hop trio, is from Waco[123]
• Hank Thompson, was born in Waco and is a country music singer who was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame[124]
• Holly Tucker was born in Waco[125][126][127]
• Mercy Dee Walton was born in Waco[128]
• Tom Wilson, record producer, grew up in Waco and is buried there

• Kip Averitt, State senator from District 22 from 2002 to 2010,[129] and State Representative from District 56 from 1994 to 2002, and currently is a lobbyist
• Joe Barton, former US congressman representing Texas's 6th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1985 to 2019, was born and reared in Waco[130]
• Leon Jaworski, who prosecuted Nazi war criminals during the Nuremberg trials and then was the special prosecutor who brought down the Nixon administration during the Watergate scandal, was born and raised in Waco
• Charles R. Matthews, former mayor of Garland, Texas, member of the Texas Railroad Commission, and chancellor of the Texas State University System, is a Waco native[131]
• Lyndon Lowell Olson Jr., former U.S. Ambassador to Sweden under President Bill Clinton, was born and raised in Waco
• William R. Poage, US Congressman who represented Texas's 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1937 to 1978, was born in Waco
• Ann Richards, former governor of Texas and keynote speaker at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, was born in the Waco suburb of Lacy Lakeview and graduated from Baylor University[132]
• Pete Sessions, US congressman who represented Texas's 32nd and 5th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1997 to 2019, was born and raised in Waco
• Ralph Sheffield, member of the Texas House of Representatives from Bell County and restaurateur in Temple, was born in Waco in 1955[133]
• David McAdams Sibley Sr., former state senator (1991–2002), was mayor of Waco (1987–1988)[134]

• T. Berry Brazelton, born in Waco, was a pediatrician and author. He developed the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale
• Tony Castro, bestselling author of several books and syndicated columnist, was born in Waco. He graduated from Baylor University and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard
• Brigham Paul Doane, born in Waco, is a professional wrestler. Under the ring name "Masada", Doane achieved international recognition in the Hardcore wrestling scene
• Hallie Earle (1880–1963) was the first licensed female physician in Waco, a 1902 M.S. from Baylor, and the only female graduate of 1907 Baylor University Medical School in Dallas
• Frank Shelby Groner (1877–1943) pastor of Columbus Avenue Baptist Church
• Heloise, of the "Hints from Heloise" column, was born in Waco. Her column addresses lifestyle hints, including consumer issues, pets, travel, food, home improvement, health, and much more
• Allene Jeanes (1906–1995), a chemical engineer whose work included the development of Dextran and Xanthan gum, was born in Waco and received her bachelor's degree from Baylor University in 1928
• Reh Jones, born in Waco, American YouTube personality, owner, producer
• David Koresh, leader of the Branch Davidians, died along with 75 others in the blaze during the Waco siege
• Robert L. Leuschner Jr. was born in Waco. He attended Rice University, followed a career in the U.S. Navy and retired as a Rear Admiral
• Vivienne Malone-Mayes, Waco-born mathematician, the first African-American faculty member of Baylor University who developed novel methods of teaching mathematics
• Robert W. McCollum (1925–2010), virologist who made important discoveries regarding polio and hepatitis[135]
• Glenn McGee, born in Waco, is a bioethicist, syndicated columnist[136] for Hearst Newspapers and for The Scientist and scholar.
• Doris (Dorie) Miller, born in Waco, was an African American cook in the United States Navy and a hero during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He was the first African American to be awarded the Navy's second-highest honor, the Navy Cross. Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. portrayed Miller in the 2001 movie Pearl Harbor
• C. Wright Mills, born in Waco, was a sociologist. Among other topics, he was concerned with the responsibilities of intellectuals in post-World War II society, and advocated relevance and engagement over disinterested academic observation
• Mark W. Muesse, born in Waco, is a philosopher and author
• William R. Munroe, born in Waco, vice admiral in the U.S. Navy, Commander-in-Chief, United States Fourth Fleet during World War II
• Felix Huston Robertson, born in Washington-on-the-Brazos, was a former Confederate Civil War general who became a wealthy lawyer, railroad director, and land speculator in Waco during Reconstruction
• Ford O. Rogers, born in Waco, major general in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, recipient of the Navy Cross
• Fred I. Stalkup, chemical engineer, graduated from Rice University and became a recognized expert in enhanced oil recovery
• John Willingham, a writer and historian born in Waco, served as McLennan County elections administrator from 1984 through 1992[137]
• Robert Wilson, born in Waco, is a stage director