24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Ganado, TX

Ganado began as Mustang Settlement, a ranching community named for nearby Mustang Creek, where settlers drove cattle herds to Louisiana and later to Kansas City for sale.

Ganado got its name in 1882, when the railroad arrived and — as the story is told — a railroad official looked out of a train car window at a large herd of cattle and decided the place should be called Ganado, the Spanish word for 'herd' or 'cattle.'

Ganado is the second largest town in Jackson County after the county seat, Edna, and sits on U.S. Highway 59 nine miles east of Edna.

Ganado became a boomtown in 1891–92 when Scandinavian immigrants settled the area, joining earlier German and Bohemian arrivals, and T. N. Mauritz opened the town's first bank in 1891.

Ganado incorporated in 1909, and its school district was formed in 1900; by 1914 its 750 residents supported a rice mill, a rice warehouse, two banks, and a weekly newspaper, the Jackson County Independent.

Ganado had a population of 1,975 at the 2020 census, living in 677 households, within a city area of about 1.2 square miles, all land.

Ganado's movie theater, opened in 1939 as part of the Long Theatres chain, showed films and hosted stage acts — and remarkably, it still operates today.

Ganado holds a place in Texas education history: the first classes of the 'Little School of the 400,' a landmark preschool program created to teach Spanish-speaking children basic English vocabulary, were held in Ganado in 1957.

Ganado High School's teams are the Indians, wearing maroon and white, and in December 2024 the Indians won the school's first-ever state football championship, beating Stamford 30–28 in a triple-overtime UIL Class 2A Division I final reported as the longest championship game in UIL history.