Ganado, TX

Ganado is a Jackson County city on U.S. 59 that grew from Mustang Settlement into a Southern Pacific railroad town. Cattle ranchers first used the area as a stop along routes toward New Orleans and Kansas City; when the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway reached the settlement in 1881–82, a railroad official saw a large herd and suggested Ganado, Spanish for “herd.” The station went up in 1882, the post office followed in 1883, and the town formed around the tracks. Ganado is a South Texas place whose name came straight from the cattle country around it.