254 Area Code 🌍☎️

Waco is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, located along the Brazos River and I-35 between Dallas and Austin, with an estimated 2025 population of 147,788 making it the 24th-most populous city in the state. The Waco metropolitan area, expanded to include McLennan, Falls, and Bosque Counties in 2023, had a 2025 population of 308,807 residents. Originally inhabited by the Wichita Indian tribe known as the "Waco," the city was founded in 1849 by Shapley Prince Ross, who built the first house, though surveyor George B. Erath designed the original city layout and named it after the indigenous people. The iconic 475-foot Waco Suspension Bridge, completed in 1870 by the Waco Bridge Company and engineered by John Augustus Roebling's firm, was the first bridge to span the Brazos River and catalyzed rapid population growth by providing safe passage for cattle drives and settlers along the Chisholm Trail. The city became an important railroad hub when the Texas and St. Louis Railway reached Waco in 1881, with the line later becoming part of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, known as the Cotton Belt. Killeen is a city in Bell County, Texas, located 55 miles north of Austin, 125 miles southwest of Dallas, and 125 miles northeast of San Antonio, with a 2020 census population of 153,095 making it the 19th-most populous city in the state. Founded in 1881 when the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway platted a 70-block town and named it after assistant general manager Frank P. Killeen, the city grew from 350 residents in 1884 to a regional agricultural hub of about 780 people by 1900. The creation of Camp Hood in 1942 as a World War II military training post dramatically transformed Killeen from a small farm trade center into a military boomtown, with its population surging from 1,300 in 1949 to 7,045 by 1950 following the post's permanent establishment as Fort Hood in 1950. Fort Hood's presence fundamentally reshaped the city's economy away from cotton and grain trading, eliminated over 300 farms and ranches, and spurred rapid demographic and cultural diversification, including the development of Marlboro Heights as an all-black subdivision and the arrival of the city's first Catholic priest in 1954. Today, Killeen serves as the principal city of the Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood Metropolitan Statistical Area with an economy heavily dependent on the military installation and its resident soldiers and families. Temple is a city of 82,073 residents in Bell County, Texas, located 65 miles north of Austin in Central Texas and serving as a principal city in the Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood metropolitan area with a combined population of 475,367. Founded in 1880 as a railroad construction camp by the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad and incorporated in 1882, Temple earned its position as Bell County's largest city through its development as a major railroad junction and medical hub, including the merger of Santa Fe Hospital and Scott and White Memorial Hospital into Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in 1983. The city is home to the Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum, located in the historic Santa Fe Railroad depot at 315 West Avenue B, which preserves the legacy of the railroad's central role in Temple's development and features extensive Harvey House memorabilia. Positioned on Interstate 35 between major Texas cities - 124 miles from Fort Worth, 130 miles from Dallas, and 147 miles from San Antonio - Temple offers access to diverse geography ranging from the Blackland Prairie farming region to the east and the Texas Hill Country to the west. The city's early colorful history as a rough-and-tumble railroad town earned it the nickname "Tanglefoot" due to its muddy streets and abundant saloons.