McAllen

Sister cities

• El Porvenir Guerrero, Los Ramones Nuevo Leon
• Guadalupe
• Irapuato
• Reynosa
• Acapulco de Juárez
• Monterrey

History

In 1904, the Hidalgo and San Miguel Extension (now the Sam Fordyce Branch) of the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway reached the Santa Anita Ranch. John McAllen and his son James had donated land to the railroad to guarantee it would cross this area. On December 5, 1904, the McAllen Townsite Company was formed by Uriah Lott, Leonidas C. Hill Sr., John McAllen (1826-1913), James Ballí McAllen (1862-1916), and John J. Young. The new community, which was named for John McAllen, had the depot nearest the county seat, Hidalgo, to the south. By 1911, were under cultivation in East McAllen: commodity crops of cotton, alfalfa, broom corn, citrus fruits, grapes, and figs were raised. East McAllen had an estimated population of 1,000 that year, and West McAllen had ceased to exist. In 1911, the town applied for and was issued a charter of incorporation under the name McAllen. In 1916, 20,000 New York state troops were stationed at McAllen to help quell border disturbances related to the Mexican Civil War. The resulting economic boom increased the population from 1,200 in 1916 to 6,000 in 1920. McAllen adopted a home rule charter in 1927. Canning factories, a winery, tortilla plants, wood-working plants, and some oil exploration increased the population to 9,074 by 1930. In 1936, Hiram Garner opened the Valley Distillery, Incorporated, which produced wines from citrus juices. The town was a petroleum and farm chemurgic center with a population of 11,877 in 1940, by which time it had adopted the nickname "The City of Palms". In 1941, a suspension bridge replaced the old bridge from Hidalgo to Reynosa in Tamaulipas; the new toll bridge was purchased by McAllen and was named the McAllen–Hidalgo–Reynosa International Bridge. Its construction resulted in increased tourist…

Geography

McAllen, located in southern Hidalgo County, is bordered to the southwest by Granjeno; to the west by Mission, Palmhurst, and Alton; to the north by Edinburg, the Hidalgo county seat; to the east by Pharr; and to the south by Hidalgo. The McAllen city limits extend to the southwest as far as the Rio Grande, directly north of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, in Mexico. The Anzalduas International Bridge crosses the Rio Grande at this point, southwest of downtown McAllen. McAllen is south of San Antonio, southwest of Corpus Christi, southeast of Laredo, northwest of Brownsville, and northeast of Monterrey. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which , or 0.62%, is covered by water. Although McAllen is named the "City of Palms", tropical vegetation is only locally dominant. Many thorny shrubs and deciduous trees occur in the area, such as the Rio Grande ash (Fraxinus berlandieriana), cedar elm (Ulmus crassifolia), and honey mesquite (Neltuma glandulosa). McAllen, like much of South Texas, has a subtropical climate. Under the Köppen climate classification, the city features a hot semi-arid climate (BSh), featuring long, very hot and humid summers, and brief, warm winters. The city has two distinct seasons, a wet season from May to October and a dry season from November to April. The normal monthly mean temperature ranges from in January to in August. The warm season is extremely long, as average high temperatures from May through September are above and average low temperatures are above , with relatively high dew point values, resulting in higher relative humidity and heat index values. Heat indices consistently reach over during these months. Winter temperatures in McAllen and surrounding Rio Grande Valley are some of the…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Great-tailed Grackle

  Quiscalus mexicanus (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  40,289
• Great Kiskadee

  Pitangus sulphuratus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  39,024
• Golden-fronted Woodpecker

  Melanerpes aurifrons (Wagler, 1829) · Aves
  38,291
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  32,943
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  32,467
• Green Jay

  Cyanocorax yncas (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  32,140
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  26,754
• Plain Chachalaca

  Ortalis vetula (Wagler, 1830) · Aves
  26,077