Biohazard Cleanup Near Westgate Crossing Weslaco, TX

Weslaco is a city in south central Hidalgo County in the heart of the Rio Grande Valley, on U.S. Highway 83 about 15 miles west of Harlingen.

Weslaco's name is an acronym of the W. E. Stewart Land Company — WES-La-Co — which bought 30,000 acres here in 1917 at ninety dollars an acre.

The city's site was part of the Llano Grande Spanish land grant made to Juan José Ynojosa de Ballí in 1790, and the Ballí family ranched the land until the 1850s.

The railroad reached the area in 1904, irrigation developers platted the West Tract in 1913, and the townsite of Weslaco was surveyed in September 1919, with its first lots sold that December.

Weslaco grew quickly as an irrigated farming town, reaching about 5,300 residents by 1930 and an estimated 6,883 by 1950.

Weslaco's population climbed from 26,935 in 2000 to 35,670 in 2010 and 40,160 in the 2020 census, and Census Bureau estimates put it above 44,000 by 2025.

Census Bureau surveys count about 14,218 households in Weslaco, averaging just under three people per household.

About 89% of Weslaco's residents are Hispanic or Latino, and the city sits roughly 10 miles north of the Mexican border.

Weslaco is where the famous Texas 1015 sweet onion was developed — it is named for its ideal planting date, October 15.

Weslaco hosts a Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center, carrying on a tradition of university and USDA crop experiment work in the city that goes back generations.