Holliday, TX

On the Wichita Falls side of Archer County, Holliday grew from a creek name into a railroad town. John Holliday carved his name into a tree during the 1841 Texan Santa Fe expedition; settlers later gave the name to the creek and then the town. A Methodist church and stage stop were in place by 1889, and the Wichita Valley Railway arrived in 1890 with a post office and a new town plat. The 2020 census counted 1,524 residents. U.S. 82 and 277 now skirt the city, keeping Holliday connected to Wichita Falls while its own city offices and school district handle the local routine.

The old railroad story still gives Holliday its shape, even as the highway carries the regional traffic. City services cluster around West Olive, and Holliday ISD supplies a shared calendar of schools, athletics, and community events. The local map stays compact: a small municipal center, a school system, older neighborhoods, and the routes that carry people toward Wichita Falls and Archer County. The name is unusually traceable—one expedition member, one creek, one rail line, and a town still using the same word.