Blue Ridge, TX

Blue Ridge is a Collin County city at the meeting of State Highway 78 and FM 981, with a name that comes from the blue-flowering grass that once made the hills look hazy from a distance. The town was established in 1876; a post office arrived that year, followed by a cotton gin, sawmill, and gristmill. Bratcher Park sits behind the town square, while Parkhill Prairie preserves 436 acres of Blackland tall-grass prairie outside town. Blue Ridge is a north Texas place where an old roadside name, a town square, and a surviving piece of prairie all share the same introduction.