Dallas began as a lone trading post on the Trinity River and grew into a city of oil, cattle, banking and technology. It is where the microchip was invented and where a president was killed, and its downtown now pairs glass towers with one of the country's biggest arts districts. Here are the facts and stories that make the city special.
10 fun facts about Dallas
- A one-man founding: John Neely Bryan set up a trading post on the Trinity River in 1841. A replica of a log cabin like his stands downtown, a short walk from Dealey Plaza.
- A herd in the middle of downtown: Pioneer Plaza holds 49 bronze steers and three cowboys by the sculptor Robert Summers, recalling the cattle drives on the Shawnee Trail. It was completed in 1994.
- A park on top of a freeway: Klyde Warren Park opened in 2012 on a deck built over the sunken Woodall Rodgers Freeway, reconnecting Uptown with the Arts District.
- Art for free: the Dallas Museum of Art, which looks out over Klyde Warren Park, has offered free general admission since 2013.
- The microchip was born here: in 1958 Jack Kilby built the first integrated circuit at Texas Instruments in Dallas. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics for it in 2000.
- The frozen margarita machine: in 1971 the Dallas restaurateur Mariano Martinez adapted a soft-serve ice cream machine to make frozen margaritas. The original is now in the Smithsonian.
- A corner shop that went global: 7-Eleven started in Dallas in 1927, when an ice dock of the Southland Ice Company began selling milk, eggs and bread.
- A ball of light: Reunion Tower, opened in 1978, is topped by a geodesic sphere covered in lights, one of the most recognisable shapes on the skyline.
- Big Tex: every autumn a giant cowboy statue called Big Tex greets visitors to the State Fair of Texas at Fair Park, whose Art Deco buildings were built for the Texas Centennial Exposition of 1936.
- A Calatrava bridge: the white arch of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, designed by Santiago Calatrava, has crossed the Trinity River since 2012.
22 November 1963
Shortly after 12:30 pm on 22 November 1963, President John F. Kennedy's motorcade turned onto Elm Street in Dealey Plaza. Shots were fired from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, and Kennedy died soon afterwards at Parkland Hospital. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested that afternoon in Oak Cliff, after also killing police officer J.D. Tippit. Two days later, Oswald was shot dead by Jack Ruby in the basement of Dallas police headquarters. The depository's sixth floor is now The Sixth Floor Museum, and a block away stands the John F. Kennedy Memorial, an open cenotaph designed by Philip Johnson.
The Arts District, explained
The Dallas Arts District is one of the largest urban arts districts in the United States, and it reads like a list of famous architects. The Meyerson Symphony Center is by I.M. Pei, the Nasher Sculpture Center by Renzo Piano, the Winspear Opera House by Foster + Partners and the Wyly Theatre by REX and OMA. Add the Dallas Museum of Art and the Crow Museum of Asian Art, and you can spend a whole day here without leaving a few blocks.
What to eat in Dallas
- Tex-Mex: enchiladas smothered in chili gravy, fajitas and queso, ideally with a frozen margarita in the city that mechanised it.
- Brisket: beef smoked low and slow for many hours, sold by weight at barbecue joints across the city.
- Chicken-fried steak: a breaded and fried beef steak covered in cream gravy, a Texan classic.
- Corny dog: a hot dog dipped in cornmeal batter and deep-fried, the signature snack of the State Fair of Texas.
- German chocolate cake: despite the name it is American, and the recipe that made it famous appeared in a Dallas newspaper in 1957.
Good to know before you go
- The Sixth Floor Museum uses timed tickets and is often busy. Book ahead and allow at least an hour and a half.
- Summers are very hot, often well above 35°C. Walk in the morning, carry water and use air-conditioned museums for the middle of the day.
- The free M-Line vintage trolley runs between downtown, the Arts District and Uptown, a handy way to rest your legs.
- Work on a westward expansion of Klyde Warren Park is planned, so expect some construction around its edges.
Explore Dallas with World City Trail
Our Dallas scavenger hunt turns these sights into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops and takes around three hours, with about 54 minutes of walking, and passes sights such as Klyde Warren Park and the Dallas Museum of Art.
At each stop you solve a puzzle and hear a short story, at your own pace. You can start whenever you like and play in English, German or Spanish.
Play the Dallas scavenger hunt →
Facts checked in October 2026.