Mesquite

Mesquite is a city in North Texas, east of Dallas on the prairie along the East Fork of the Trinity River. The Mesquite Championship Rodeo, held each summer since the late 1950s, has made it known as the Rodeo Capital of Texas.

The Texas and Pacific Railway laid out the town in 1873 on its line from Dallas to Shreveport, and it was named after Mesquite Creek, which runs nearby. Cotton, corn and hay were grown on the black soil of the area, and the town was a farm center for its first decades. A charter in 1887 made Mesquite a town with its own government. Neal Gay, a cowboy and rodeo producer, started the rodeo of the city in the late 1950s. In the 1950s and 1960s the city spread quickly as a suburb of Dallas along the new highways.

Town East Mall, opened in the early 1970s, draws shoppers from the eastern suburbs of Dallas. The south side of the city, near the Mesquite airport, holds large warehouses and distribution centers.

The Mesquite Arena, home of the rodeo, holds bull riding and barrel racing on Friday and Saturday nights in the season. Samuell Farm, a park on the eastern edge of the city, has fishing ponds and trails through farmland that the doctor W. W. Samuell left to Dallas. The Mesquite Arts Center holds galleries and a theater in the old town center. The Opal Lawrence Historical Park keeps a farmhouse and barns of the early 20th century.