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Dallas is the third-largest city in the state of Texas and the
ninth-largest city in the United States. The city covers 385 square
miles (997 km²) and is the county seat of Dallas County. As of 1
July 2005, U.S. Census estimates put Dallas at a population of 1.2
million. The city is the main cultural and economic center of the
12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area—at 6 million
people, it is the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United
States. Dallas is listed as a gamma world city by the Loughborough
University Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network.
Dallas was founded in 1841 and formally incorporated as a city on 2
February 1856. The city is well known for its role in the petroleum
industry, telecommunications, computer technology, banking, and
transportation. It is the core of the largest inland metropolitan
area in the United States and lacks any navigable link to the
sea—Dallas's prominence despite this comes from its historical
importance as a center for the oil and cotton industries, its
position along numerous railroad lines, and its powerful industrial
and financial tycoons.
 Before
Texas was claimed in the 1500s as a part of the Viceroyalty of New
Spain by the Spanish Empire, the Dallas area was inhabited by the
Caddo Native Americans. Later, France also claimed the area, but in
1819 the Adams-Onís Treaty made the Red River the northern boundary
of New Spain, officially placing Dallas well within Spanish
territory. The area remained under Spanish rule until 1821, when
Mexico declared independence from Spain and the area became part of
the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. In 1836, the Republic of
Texas broke off from Mexico to become an independent nation.[11] In
1839, four years into the Republic's existence, John Neely Bryan
surveyed the area around present-day Dallas. He then left for
Arkansas, but returned in 1841 and founded the city of Dallas. In
1846 the Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States and
Dallas County was established.
According to the City of Dallas, the origin of the name “Dallas” is
a mystery, despite claims to the contrary. Bryan stated only that it
was named “after my friend Dallas.” It has often been claimed that
both the county and the city were named after George Mifflin Dallas,
the eleventh Vice President of the United States. However, there is
no evidence that Bryan ever met George Mifflin Dallas, and the area
was called Dallas several years before the latter was elected.
 Dallas was founded in 1841 and formally incorporated as a city on 2
February 1856. The city had a few slaves, mostly brought by settlers
from Alabama and Georgia. Dallas was just another small town dotting
the Texas frontier until after the American Civil War in which it
was part of the Confederate States of America, and only legally
became a city in 1871. The city paid the Houston and Central Texas
Railroad US$5,000 to shift its route 20 miles (32 km) to the west
and build its north-south tracks through Dallas, rather than through
Corsicana as planned. A year later, Dallas leaders could not pay the
Texas and Pacific Railroad to locate there, so they devised a way to
trick the Railroad. Dallas had a rider attached to a state law which
required the railroad to build its tracks through Browder
Springs—which turned out to be just south of Main Street.
[verification needed] In 1873, the major north-south and east-west
Texas railroad routes intersected in Dallas, thus ensuring its
future as a commercial center.
 By the turn of the twentieth century Dallas was the leading drug,
book, jewelry, and wholesale liquor market in the Southwestern
United States. It also quickly became the center of trade in cotton,
grain, and even buffalo. It was the world's leading inland cotton
market, and continued to lead the world in manufacture of saddlery
and cotton gin machinery.[9] As it further entered the 20th century,
Dallas transformed from an agricultural center to a center of
banking, insurance, and other businesses.
In 1930, oil was discovered 100 miles (160 km) east of Dallas and
the city quickly became the financial center for the oil industry in
Texas and Oklahoma. In 1958 the integrated circuit was invented in
Dallas by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments, which punctuated the
Dallas area's development as a center for high-technology
manufacturing. During the 1950s and 1960s, Dallas became the
nation's third-largest technology center, with the growth of such
companies as Ling-Tempco-Vought (LTV Corporation) and Texas
Instruments. In 1957 two developers, Trammell Crow and John M.
Stemmons, opened a Home Furnishings Mart that grew into the Dallas
Market Center, the largest wholesale trade complex in the world. On
22 November 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Elm
Street while his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in downtown
Dallas.
 In the 1970s and 1980s, Dallas underwent a building boom that
produced a distinctive contemporary profile and prominent skyline
for downtown Dallas. Because of the immense worldwide success of the
hit television series Dallas, the city became one of the most
internationally recognizable US cities during the 1980s. The 1980s
also saw many oil industry companies relocate to Houston in order to
be closer to offshore operations and the Port of Houston. However,
Dallas was beginning to benefit from a burgeoning technology boom at
the same time, driven by the growing computer, microchip, and
telecommunications industries. Dallas also remained a strong center
of banking, insurance, and business. The mid-to-late 1980s were
tumultuous for the city when many Dallas banks collapsed from the
Savings and Loan crisis. The hit effectively threw the city's
economy to its knees and plans for hundreds of millions of dollars
worth of development were scrapped. The city remained in recession
during the 1990s but the explosive growth of technology-based
businesses kept the city's economy fairly stable—During the 1990s,
Dallas became known as the Silicon Prairie, similar to California's
Silicon Valley.
 Recession continued to plague the city into the early 21st Century.
From 1988 to 2005, not a single high-rise structure was built within
the downtown freeway loop, and the city was running out of
developable land in north Dallas and Lake Highlands. Totally
closed-off on the north by suburbs, most new housing was being built
in Carrollton, Coppell, Frisco, McKinney, Plano and Richardson. By
the mid-2000s, the dried up downtown market began to turn around
with the construction of multiple art venues, office towers,
residential towers, and residential conversions. Downtown housed
little over 1,600 residents in 2000, and by the year 2010, the North
Central Texas Council of Governments expects over 10,000 residents
to be living in the neighborhood. Just north, Uptown is one of the
hottest real estate markets in the country, and major advances are
taking place in the underdeveloped south Dallas and Oak Cliff areas,
including the construction of the University of North Texas at
Dallas.
 The
Arts District in downtown is home to several arts venues, both
existing and proposed. Notable venues in the district include the
Dallas Museum of Art, the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, The
Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art, the Nasher
Sculpture Center, and nearby The Dallas Contemporary. Venues under
construction or planned include the Winspear Opera House and the
Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. The district is also home to
DISD's Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and
Visual Arts, which is currently being expanded.
Deep Ellum originally became popular during the 1920s and 1930s as
the prime jazz and blues hotspot in the south. Artists such as Blind
Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter, and
Bessie Smith played in original Deep Ellum clubs such as The Harlem
and The Palace. Today, Deep Ellum is home to hundreds of artists who
live in lofts and operate in studios throughout the district
alongside bars, pubs, and concert venues. One major art infusion in
the area is the city's lax stance on graffiti; consequently, several
public ways including tunnels, sides of buildings, sidewalks, and
streets are covered in murals. One major example, the Good-Latimer
tunnel, was torn down in late 2006 to accommodate the construction
of a light rail line through the site.
 The Cedars has a growing population of studio artists and an
expanding roster of entertainment venues. The area's art scene began
to grow in the early 2000s with the opening of Southside on Lamar, a
Sears warehouse converted into lofts, studios, and retail. Current
attractions include Gilley's Dallas and Poor David's Pub.
Entrepreneur Mark Cuban purchased land along Lamar Avenue near
Cedars Station in September 2005 and locals speculate that he is
planning an entertainment complex for the site.
The Bishop Arts District in Oak Cliff is home to a number of studio
artists living in converted warehouses. Walls of buildings along
alleyways and streets are painted with murals and the surrounding
streets contain many eclectic restaurants and shops.
 Dallas has an Office of Cultural Affairs as a department of the city
government. The City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs is
responsible for six cultural centers located throughout the city,
funding for local artists and theatres, public art projects and
running the city owned radio station WRR.
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