Pelican Bay, TX

Pelican Bay is a small Tarrant County city on Eagle Mountain Lake, about 17 miles northwest of Fort Worth. The 2020 census counted 2,049 residents. It began in 1970 on Olen Yandell's 148-acre dairy farm beside the lake and incorporated in 1981 after residents pushed for better roads and law enforcement. That origin still shows in the city's scale: it is a lake-edge enclave with its own municipal boundary, close enough to Fort Worth and Azle to share their larger road and service network.

The lake is the practical center. Pelican Bay has a city park with a newer playground and a swim beach on leased lakefront, while the community is served by Azle Independent School District. FM 730 is the main approach from Azle, and the shoreline gives the residential streets their reason for being there. Pelican Bay grew from a failed resort idea into a self-governing lake community, with the original farm-to-waterfront story still visible in the way homes and roads meet Eagle Mountain Lake.