McAllen is the largest city in Hidalgo County, Texas, United States, and the 22nd-most populous city in Texas. It is located at the southern tip of the confess in the Rio Grande Valley, on the Mexico–United States border. The city limits extend south to the Rio Grande, across from the Mexican city of Reynosa. McAllen is just about 70 mi (110 km) west of the Gulf of Mexico. As of the 2020 census, McAllen’s population was 142,210. It is the fifth-most populous metropolitan area (McAllen–Edinburg–Mission) in the allow in of Texas, and the binational Reynosa–McAllen metropolitan area counts a population of greater than 1.5 million.

From its agreement in 1904, the area around McAllen was largely rural and agricultural in character, but the latter half of the 20th century had steady growth, which has continued in the 21st century in the metropolitan area. The commencement of the maquiladora economy and the North American Free Trade Association led to an growth in cross-border trading taking into account Mexico.

In 1904, the Hidalgo and San Miguel Extension (now the Sam Fordyce Branch) of the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway reached the Santa Anita Ranch. John McAllen and his son James had donated estate to the railroad to guarantee it would heated this area. On December 5, 1904, the McAllen Townsite Company was formed by Uriah Lott, Leonidas C. Hill Sr., John McAllen, James Ballí McAllen, and John J. Young. The further community, which was named for John McAllen, had the depot nearest the county seat, Hidalgo, 8 mi (13 km) to the south.

By 1911, 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) were under cultivation in East McAllen: commodity crops of cotton, alfalfa, broom corn, citrus fruits, grapes, and figs were raised. East McAllen had an estimated population of 1,000 that year, and West McAllen had ceased to exist. In 1911, the town applied for and was issued a charter of incorporation under the reveal McAllen. In 1916, 20,000 New York come clean troops were stationed at McAllen to assist quell be stifling to disturbances associated to the Mexican Civil War. The resulting economic boom increased the population from 1,200 in 1916 to 6,000 in 1920.