Mesquite is a city located within the Dallas/Ft.Worth area of Texas. Most of the city is located in Dallas County with a smaller portion in the east overlapping into Kaufman County. As of the 2010 census, the population was 139,824. The city was founded on March 14, 1878, on land along the Texas & Pacific line outside of Dallas. The railroad, which ran from Dallas to Shreveport, Louisiana, began stopping at the newly-created town shortly thereafter, and the city began to grow around the railroad. The city was officially incorporated on December 3, 1887. Mesquite prospered through the late... 19th century and early 20th century as a farming community growing cotton, hay, corn and sugar and using the railroad to ship raw goods. The town remained predominantly agrarian until after World War II when the suburban boom also took root in Mesquite. The city's population rapidly grew from 1,696 in the 1950 census to 27,526 in 1960 and 55,131 in 1970. In 1958, the Mesquite Championship Rodeo was established, and in 1959, Big Town Mall opened as the first air conditioned shopping mall in the United States. The mall was demolished in the summer of 2006.
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| County: | Kaufman County |
| State: | Texas |
| Population: | 139,824 |
| Area: | 43.5 sq. mi. |
| Time zone: | Central Time zone |
| Also known as: | Mesquite, Texas, Kaufman County / Mesquite city |