Biohazard Cleanup Near West Baird Baird, TX

Baird is a city and the county seat of Callahan County, Texas, located at the junction of Interstate 20 and U.S. Highway 283 and counted as part of the Abilene metropolitan area.

Baird was founded in 1880 when the Texas and Pacific Railway built through, and it was named for Matthew Baird, a railroad surveyor and engineer who was a director of the Texas & Pacific and proprietor of the Baldwin Locomotive Works.

As a railroad division point, early Baird had a depot, roundhouse, and repair shops; the old depot now serves as the town's visitor center and transportation museum.

Baird replaced the bypassed town of Belle Plain as county seat in 1883, absorbing most of its population; the old Callahan County jail at Belle Plain was later taken apart brick by brick and rebuilt in Baird.

Baird's post office opened in 1881 under the name Vickery before being renamed Baird in 1883, and the town was incorporated in 1889.

Baird's population peaked at about 3,000 in 1929 and was 1,479 at the 2020 census; the 2000 census counted 677 households in the city.

In 1993 the Texas Legislature designated Baird the "Antique Capital of Texas."

The Callahan County Library, started by the Baird Wednesday Club in 1937, and the Pioneer Museum, added in 1940, share the basement floor of the Callahan County Courthouse.

Baird is home to Callahan County's hospital and serves as a supply center for area oilfields and ranches.

Local students attend Baird Independent School District, whose teams are the Bears in red and white and whose district also serves the town of Putnam; Baird High School students can earn Cisco College credit starting in ninth grade.