Waco, in central Texas and seat of McLennan County. The city is located on the Brazos River, in a region producing cotton, grain, and livestock. Several lakes are nearby including Lake Waco, on the Bosque River. Waco is a commercial, transportation, and manufacturing center, with industries producing plastics, processed food, pharmaceuticals, glass, steel, and candy. The area is served by the Waco Regional Airport. Located in the city is Baylor University (1845), with the Armstrong Browning Library housing a large collection relating to the poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning; a community college; and a technical college. A museum commemorates the history of the Texas Rangers. The Cameron Park Zoo exhibits animals in natural habitats.
The Waco people, for whom the city is named, lived at the strategic crossing of the Brazos when Texas Rangers established Fort Fisher there in 1837. Waco incorporated in 1857. Beginning in the late 1860s, Waco benefited from its location on the Chisholm Trail, a cattle route between San Antonio, Texas, and Abilene, Kansas. Major economic development began after the river was spanned by a suspension bridge, then one of the world's longest and today still used as a pedestrian crossing, in 1870 and the arrival of the first railroad in 1871. The city was badly damaged by a tornado in 1953. A 51-day standoff between law-enforcement officials and members of a religious group calling themselves the Branch Davidians took place near Waco in 1993, resulting in the deaths of about 80 group members and 4 federal agents.
