Aledo, Texas

Everything Aledo is known for

2 songs mention this city 3 artists from here

Music in Aledo

Songs About Aledo

Parker County Peach
Songbird Jones
90%
"West on I-20 cross the Tarrant County Line"
Miss Aledo
Don Edwards
80%
"Miss Aledo"

Artists From Aledo

D
Dayglow
rock Pop: 63
D
Dan Roberts
country Pop: 55
G
Gatlin Johnson
country Pop: 8

Rivers & Roads in Song near Aledo

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Aledo.

Interstate 20 13 songs Texas State Highway 199 8 songs Brazos River 37 songs Chisholm Trail 7 songs Trinity River 10 songs Interstate 35 42 songs

History of Aledo

Chicken-Fried Steak on Front Street RoadyGoat

If Press Cafe is the new face of downtown Aledo, the Aledo Diner up the block at 213 North Front Street is the old-school one. It is exactly what it sounds like, a plain, family-run, original-style diner with nothing fancy about it, the kind of place that opens early and serves a town its breakfast. Regulars line up for fluffy pancakes, biscuits and gravy, big omelettes, and a chicken-fried steak that locals will argue is among the best in the county, with homemade salsa on the side. It keeps small-town hours, mornings into the early afternoon and closed on Sundays, the rhythm of a place that runs on regulars rather than tourists. People around here only half-joke that it is the best-kept secret in Parker County. Sitting right on the same Front Street that grew up against the Texas and Pacific tracks, it is the unpretentious counterweight to Aledo's newer shine, a working diner doing one honest thing well. (Source: Aledo Diner; City of Aledo business directory.)

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Named for a Town in Illinois RoadyGoat

1879

The community that became Aledo started as Parker's Station, settled by families from Georgia before the Texas and Pacific Railway arrived in 1879. When the community applied for a post office, there was already a Parker's Station elsewhere in Texas, and postal officials rejected the name. A Texas and Pacific official suggested Aledo, after his hometown of Aledo, Illinois, and the post office opened under that name in 1882. The town's identity has nothing to do with the Spanish word or any local geography. It came from a railroad employee's nostalgia for a small town in western Illinois, transplanted to Parker County because the original name was already taken.

Aledo at Its Agricultural Peak RoadyGoat

1915

By 1915, Aledo had a bank. In a farming community that is not a luxury: it meant farmers could borrow against a coming harvest, carry debt through a bad season, and move money without cash changing hands in a field. Around that bank, Aledo had also built a steam cotton gin, a corn mill and twenty-one businesses serving the farms and ranches of eastern Parker County. The gin turned raw cotton into fiber ready to ship. The corn mill turned grain into flour and livestock feed. The bank made the system run between harvests. A self-contained rural economy, held together by credit.

Bankhead Highway in Aledo

1916

Commonly referred to as the "Broadway of America," the Bankhead Highway linked cities and towns throughout the nation as one of the first transcontinental highways of the 1920s. In the wake of the first World War, the American government sought to ensure proper defense and military transportation through an extensive national highway system. Senator John Hollis Bankhead of Alabama, along with the National Good Roads Congress, organized the Bankhead Highway Association in 1916. This paved the way for modern American tourism, commercial travel and daily transit. The Bankhead Highway extends more than 900 miles within the state of Texas, from Texarkana to El Paso, totaling about one-third of the National Road's complete length. Initially, the City of Aledo was located one mile south of the Highway, which stretched from east to west through Parker County. The route currently establishes the northern boundary of the future city limits of Aledo. The segment of the Bankhead Highway which connects Watherford to Aledo, remains the most frequently utilized and longest, continuously-named portion of the entire road. Amidst the growing addition of new housing developments, one can still find remnants of old diary farms, as well as rows of sycamore trees planted in memory of WWI veterans. Today, the Bankhead Highway represents an important transitiion from the 19th century to the modern age. It is one of the most significant infrastructure developments in American History, connection people and communities from across the nation. (2015)

Historical Marker →

Gratz, Lawson Daniel

1864

Lawson Daniel Gratz, African-American Civil War veteran and Buffalo Soldier , was born a slave in Kentucky. Sources give his birth date variously as 1834, 1836, and 1839. When he gained freedom and volunteered for service in the Union Army on June 24, 1864, enlisting officers recorded his birthplace as Fayette County, Kentucky, and his age as thirty, making 1834 possibly the year of his birth. The 1900 United States census recorded the time of his birth as September 1839. A Texas Historical Marker lists Gratz as a native of Mason County, Kentucky, and born on the “plantation of Benjamin Gratz” on September 15, 1839. Gratz (or Gratts, as his name was written at times) became a sergeant in Company C of the 114th United States Colored Troops, a unit that was ordered to Virginia in January 1865 and participated in Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s campaign that forced the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee ’s Confederate army at Appomattox in April. The 114th USCT remained in Virginia until July 1865 and were then ordered to the Rio Grande as part of the United States Army guarding the border with Mexico. Gratz and his fellow soldiers were mustered out of service in April 1867. Gratz moved for a brief time to Washington, D.C., before joining the newly-created Tenth United States Cavalry in August 1867. The Tenth Cavalry under the command of Col. Benjamin Grierson campaigned against the Plains Indians, especially the Comanches , from 1867 to 1875 and earned the nickname “Buffalo Soldiers” for their skill and tenacity. Gratz suffered an accidental wound that destroyed vision in his right eye in 1868, but he learned to aim with his left eye and remained in the Tenth Cavalry until 1872, when he was discharged at Fort Richardson, Texas. Following his discharge, Gratz moved to Albany, Shackleford County, Texas. He worked as a farmer and as a teamster, hauling hides eastward to Fort Worth and Dallas. On September 24, 1877, Gratz married sixteen-year old Rosa Ann (or Rosanna) Cass in Shackleford County, and the couple began a family that eventually included fourteen children. The family moved to a small farm near Annetta, Parker County, in 1892. The 1900 United States census listed Gratz (age sixty) with his wife Rosa and nine children in the household. They lived in Annetta until Gratz’s death from a heart attack on June 18, 1909. He was buried at Willow Springs Cemetery in Parker County. Lawson D. Gratz is honored by a marker erected in Parker County by the Texas Historical Commission , and his name is found on the Wall of Honor at the African American Civil War Monument in Washington, D.C.

Tsha Handbook → · 3.9 mi away

City of Aledo

1879

In 1849, the U. S. Army built Fort Worth to establish a line of defense against Indian raids and also to protect Indian lands from settlement. By 1855, farms, ranches and small settlements dotted eastern Parker County and the frontier encroached into hunting lands inhabited for years by Comanche and Kiowa tribes. By 1856, sufficient settlement had taken place and Parker County was created. When the Texas and Pacific Railroad laid tracks in 1879, the community of Aledo was established. At first, the community was known as Parker Station, but was changed in 1882 to Aledo, named after Aledo, Illinois, the hometown of a railroad official. By the beginning of the 20th century, Aledo was the commercial center of east Parker County with business development near the train station and along north and south front streets. There were two water-powered mills in operation near Aledo. The transcontinental Bankhead Highway bypassed downtown Aledo in the 1920s, but the route currently establishes the northern boundary of the future city limits of the City of Aledo. By 1960, Aledo was growing because engineers and professionals from the bomber plant in Fort Worth wanted to live in a small community. On May 8, 1963, Aledo was incorporated as a city with 550 residents. The initial city government in 1963 consisted of Mayor Robert Daugherty and commissioners Felix Reynolds and Joe Whitmire. Citizens Jack Holt and Dub Bearden were also principal promoters to have Aledo recognized as a city. Since then, Aledo has continued to grow and prosper as reflected in its slogan, “Rich Heritage, Dynamic Future.”

Historical Marker →

First Baptist Church of Aledo

1879

First Baptist Church Of Aledo This congregation was organized on September 25, 1879. The first church building was located on land (2.5 mi. SE) donated by a Mr. Middleton, who asked that the structure be named Alma Hall in memory of his daughter. The hall was shared with a Masonic Lodge and a Methodist congregation. Elder Isaac McMurray served as pastor of the Alma Hall Church until 1884, when it merged with the Ebenezer Church. Soon after the consolidation, the congregation moved to the railroad town of Aledo. Here the members worshiped in the community schoolhouse until a sanctuary was completed at this site in 1891. In 1913 it was replaced by a larger structure, built under the supervision of Joe Hopkins and with the assistance of church members. Later additions to the site were made to meet the demands of the congregation's continued growth. For over a century the First Baptist Church of Aledo has been instrumental in the development of the surrounding area. Pastors here have included many prominent Baptist preachers, and church members have actively served as leaders of the community. The church's programs continue to reflect the ideals of its pioneer founders. (1983)

Historical Marker →

Tri-County Electric Cooperative, Inc.

1935

Tri-County Electric Cooperative, Inc., is a member-owned electric utility with administrative offices at 200 Bailey Ranch Road in Aledo, Texas, and offices in Azle, Keller, Granbury, Seymour, and Munday, Texas. By late 2020 the cooperative was the fourth largest electric cooperative in Texas, had more than 94,000 members, and served over 120,000 meters in sixteen Texas counties: Archer, Baylor, Denton, Foard, Haskell, Hood, Jack, King, Knox, Palo Pinto, Parker, Stonewall, Tarrant, Throckmorton, Wilbarger, and Wise. Like other electric cooperatives , Tri-County was created to serve rural residents in areas deemed cost-prohibitive by investor-owned utilities. The region that it was originally organized to serve was designated as "Texas 101-Parker" by the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), a federal agency signed into existence by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in May 1935 (see RURAL ELECTRIFICATION ) . A temporary cooperative was organized at a meeting attended by more than 100 people on October 25, 1938, at Liberty School, north of Azle. L. E. "Bud" Moran and James Knox Peden, both of Azle, were elected president and secretary, respectively, and authorized to file a preliminary application with the REA to build 200 miles of line to serve their communities. Tri-County was incorporated on March 20, 1939, with Samuel Dowell Walker of Springtown as president, J. W. Shivers of Keller as vice-president, Peden as secretary-treasurer, and Mac Hall "Mack" Skidmore of Azle as superintendent. The meeting was held in Azle at a stone building at 124 West Main Street, which served as the cooperative's first office and which in 2020 housed the city's historical museum. The cooperative was officially chartered in August of 1939. The cooperative secured loans through the REA to build sections of line as membership grew. In 1971 it began to use the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC)-a member-owned lending co-op-to supplement REA financing. In June 1994 Tri-County Co-op "bought out" its loans from the REA's successor, the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), and began to use the CFC as its sole lender. The cooperative grew steadily for its first 40 years. After starting with 574 members in 1940, it had 3,533 in 1950, 4,345 in 1960, and 6,405 in 1970. By 1980 membership topped 14,000, and in 1990 membership stood at more than 22,000. In 1998 Tri-County merged with the B-K Electric Cooperative, headquartered in Seymour. That move, which added nine counties to the cooperative's existing seven-county service area, coupled with explosive growth in north Tarrant County, brought membership to 35,000 by 2000. By 2010 the cooperative's membership was almost 70,000. As of 2020 Tri-County employed a workforce of more than 200, with Darryl Schriver holding the office of president/CEO and Jorden Wood as chair of the board of directors. Albert Porter, first elected to the board in 1941, served on the board for forty-four years, including forty-two as president of the board. A bylaws change in 2020 altered the rules for director nominations and expanded the board to nine members, with members drawn from four urban districts, four suburban districts, and one rural district. Two new members, Margaret Koprek and Kevin Ingle, were appointed to fill the two newly-created urban districts in north Tarrant County in February 2021. Koprek was the first woman board member in the cooperative's history. Total income for the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2020, was $260.4 million, with electric energy sales exceeding 2.8 billion kilowatt-hours. The cooperative's diverse member base included data centers, financial and investment hubs, major retailers, and sprawling residential developments in its urban and suburban areas, as well as farmers and ranchers, deer camps, irrigation wells, and oil and gas installations in the rural areas. In 1964 the cooperative moved into a new office on Northwest Parkway in Azle. It opened district offices i

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Annetta, TX

1876

Annetta is on Farm Road 1187 six miles southeast of Weatherford in southeastern Parker County. Settlement began there in the late 1870s, when a Mr. Fraser established a station for the convenience of freighters who traveled east to Dallas and on to Jefferson. Fraser named his station Annetta after his daughter. In the early 1880s, after the tracks of the Texas and Pacific Railway passed near his station, Fraser built a general store on the rail line, and gradually a community developed at the site. An Annetta post office operated from 1876 until 1907. By the mid-1890s Annetta had a population of twenty-five, three churches, a public school, and a general store; it was a shipping point for cotton and local crops. For most of the twentieth century Annetta served area farmers as a school and church community. The number of residents remained well below fifty until the late 1970s. At that time the community grew suddenly, probably as a result of the dramatic growth of nearby Fort Worth. By the 1980s the northern and southern sections had split off from central Annetta. Annetta North incorporated in the mid-1980s and reported 281 residents. Annetta South also incorporated during the 1980s and claimed a population of 115. In 1990 Annetta had a population of 678; Annetta North had 265, and Annetta South had 413.

Tsha Handbook → · 3.9 mi away

Things to Do in Aledo

quirky 17.6 mi away
Chewbacca's Grave — May the 4th

May the 4th be with you — and with the Wookiee. Peter Mayhew the seven-foot-three British actor who brought Chewbacca to life in every Star Wars film from 1977…
historical 14.1 mi away
WWII Marine Glider Base at Eagle Mountain

In 1942 the United States Marines bought 2931 acres of ranchland on Eagle Mountain Lake for a purpose that sounds almost unbelievable now — training pilots to…
quirky 14.1 mi away
The Azle Earthquake Swarm

Starting in November 2013 the ground beneath Azle started shaking and it did not stop for 84 days. Twenty-seven earthquakes rattled windows cracked foundations…
historical 16.2 mi away
Billy Bob's Texas

Billy Bob's opened in 1981 in an old cattle barn in the Fort Worth Stockyards and at one hundred twenty-seven thousand square feet it is the largest honky-tonk…
historical 16.2 mi away
Fort Worth Stockyards

Daily cattle drives down the street. Honky-tonks and rodeos in the old West.
food 16.3 mi away
Joe T. Garcia's

Joe T opened his little family restaurant behind the packing plant in the Fort Worth Stockyards in 1935. There was no menu. His wife Jessie served whatever she…
quirky 17.6 mi away
Chewbacca's Grave

The seven-foot-three British actor who played Chewbacca in every Star Wars film from 1977 to The Force Awakens is buried right here at Azleland Memorial Park.…
quirky 19.1 mi away
Springtown Dinosaur Tracks

A family went out hunting arrowheads along Walnut Creek in 2017 and found something about 110 million years older than they expected. Pressed into the creekbed…

Sports in Aledo

🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 5A · Football · 1998–2025

Aledo Bearcats — 12 football state titles — the most in Texas history

12 UIL state titles · 2025 state finalist (14–1)

If Texas high school football has a dynasty, it wears Aledo's black and gold. Out in Parker County west of Fort Worth, the Bearcats have won 12 state championships — the most by any school in Texas — with 11 of them across the 2009–2024 seasons. They're the only UIL program to win three or more in a row twice.

The recent haul alone is staggering: titles in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023, including back-to-back wins over Fort Bend Marshall (55–19 in 2018, a 45–42 thriller in 2019) and a pair of 50-burgers to close it out — 52–14 over College Station in 2022 and 51–8 over Smithson Valley in 2023.

And the deep runs never stop. Even in the years they don't take it home, Aledo gets all the way there: in 2025 they went 14–1 and came within a single game of a 13th state title, their only loss coming in the championship game itself — and back in 2017 they reached the 5A-DII final before falling to College Station 20–19. Players like Jase McClellan and JoJo Earle carried the program on to major-college and pro football.

State titles
12 (most in TX)
2025 season
14–1, state finalist
Recent title
2023, 51–8
Also
2017 state finalist
Key Players
  • Jase McClellan — Running back — Alabama, then the NFL
  • JoJo Earle — Wide receiver — Alabama / TCU
The moment

Even the near-misses run deep: in 2025 Aledo went 14–1 and came within one game of a 13th title, falling only in the state championship.

Sources: Wikipedia · UIL State Championship Archives · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near Aledo

1003 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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