R E S O L U T I O N
1-1 WHEREAS, Many proud citizens from Waco are visiting the State
1-2 Capitol today to celebrate the major role this outstanding city has
1-3 played in the annals of Texas history; and
1-4 WHEREAS, Located on the Brazos and Bosque rivers, the town
1-5 stands on the site of a former Waco Indian village; the large
1-6 springs and fertile land that attracted the Wacos also appealed to
1-7 the Cherokees, who supplanted them in the 1830s, and later to Anglo
1-8 settlers, who began arriving in the area in the 1840s; and
1-9 WHEREAS, In 1849 the Texas Ranger and surveyor George B.
1-10 Erath was hired to lay out a new town on this spot; called Waco
1-11 Village in its early days, the community became the county seat of
1-12 McLennan County in 1850; over the course of succeeding decades the
1-13 town grew and flourished, its economy stoked by cotton production
1-14 in the Brazos River Valley, by the cattle that were driven through
1-15 Waco in the post-Civil War years, by the opening of the famous Waco
1-16 Suspension Bridge over the Brazos in 1870, and by the arrival of
1-17 the railroads in the 1870s and 1880s; and
1-18 WHEREAS, Waco's development as an important commercial nexus
1-19 was paralleled by its rise as a center of education; among the many
1-20 early schools that gave instruction here were Paul Quinn College,
1-21 founded by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Add-Ran
1-22 College, a forerunner of Texas Christian University; today Waco is
1-23 the home of Baylor University, McLennan Community College, and
1-24 Texas State Technical College; and
2-1 WHEREAS, By the 1890s Waco ranked as one of the largest
2-2 cotton markets in the South, and the crucial position of this
2-3 commodity in Waco's economy gave rise in the 1910s and 1920s to the
2-4 Cotton Palace exposition, a fall fair that was one of the most
2-5 popular in the country; for a time the city could also claim the
2-6 tallest building in the state, a 22-story insurance company tower
2-7 that underscored the town's commercial significance; during World
2-8 War I the population of Waco nearly doubled with the establishment
2-9 of an infantry training base; and
2-10 WHEREAS, World War II brought a United States Army flying
2-11 school and two air fields to the Waco environs and also stimulated
2-12 the city's manufacturing sector; responding to the demand for
2-13 cotton products, the town became the military's largest producer of
2-14 tents, cots, mattresses, and barracks bags; Doris Miller, a Waco
2-15 native, created an enduring place for himself in Texas military
2-16 history by downing four Japanese planes during the raid on Pearl
2-17 Harbor; and
2-18 WHEREAS, Today, Waco remains an educational, agricultural,
2-19 and manufacturing center while offering a wide array of cultural
2-20 and recreational attractions; admirers of the poets Robert and
2-21 Elizabeth Barrett Browning will find the world's largest collection
2-22 of their works and memorabilia at the Armstrong-Browning Library on
2-23 the Baylor campus, while the Strecker Museum, also at Baylor,
2-24 specializes in anthropological and natural history collections;
2-25 among the latter exhibits is an installation explaining the Waco
2-26 Mammoth Site, one of the most important troves of mammoth skeletons
2-27 yet discovered; and
3-1 WHEREAS, Other notable facilities include the Texas Ranger
3-2 Hall of Fame and Museum at Fort Fisher, the Texas Sports Hall of
3-3 Fame, and the Cameron Park Zoo, which houses many endangered or
3-4 threatened species in a natural-habitat setting; the Dr Pepper
3-5 Museum enshrines the history of the town's famous soft drink, first
3-6 formulated in a Waco drugstore in the 1880s; and
3-7 WHEREAS, One of Waco's earliest landmarks is still among its
3-8 most famous: the Suspension Bridge, designed by the company that
3-9 later built the Brooklyn Bridge, has been preserved and is now
3-10 flanked by beautiful parks; in October, the Heart o' Texas Fair and
3-11 Rodeo evokes the days when this bridge brought a section of the
3-12 Chisholm cattle trail directly through Waco; and
3-13 WHEREAS, Citizens of Waco have made enormous economic,
3-14 educational, and cultural contributions to the development of Texas
3-15 and they continue to play a vital role as our state embarks on the
3-16 21st century; at the same time, they have maintained the attractive
3-17 qualities that make our best small cities such a desirable place to
3-18 live and raise a family; it is thus a great pleasure and altogether
3-19 fitting that we honor today their notable endeavors and many
3-20 achievements; now, therefore, be it
3-21 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 77th Texas
3-22 Legislature hereby recognize February 27, 2001, as Waco Day at the
3-23 State Capitol and extend to this delegation and to all the citizens
3-24 of Waco sincere best wishes as they carry forward their admirable
3-25 work.
Averitt
Dunnam
_______________________________
Speaker of the House
I certify that H.R. No. 281 was adopted by the House on
February 27, 2001, by a non-record vote.
_______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House