Edinburg, the Hidalgo county seat, is on U.S. Highway 281 and
State Highway 107 in the south central part of the county. It is part of the
McAllen, Pharr, Edinburg metropolitan area. Hidalgo, on the Rio Grande, was
the original county seat. John Closnerqv and William Briggs, who had land-development
projects in the vicinity of Chapin, seventeen miles north of Hidalgo, made Chapin
county seat. The townsite was named after Dennis B. Chapin, another of its promoters.
Chapin's involvement in a homicide caused a change of name in 1911 to Edinburg,
in honor of the birthplace in Scotland of John Young. The town grew slowly to
some 800 inhabitants by 1915 and remained unincorporated until 1919. During
its early years it served a ranching community, but the arrival of irrigationqv
in 1915 initiated an agricultural economy. Edinburg quickly became a center
for buying and processing cotton, grain, and citrus produce. Other economic
developments before World War IIqv included vegetable, sorghum, corn, sugarcane,
and poultry (eggs) industries. After the war the economy diversified further
to include peach and melon production, food-processing plants, cabinetry, oilfield
equipment, concrete products, agricultural chemicals, and corrugated boxes.
In the 1970s tourism increased significantly.
The major historical landmark of Edinburg is its former city
hall, erected in 1909 and located near the northwest corner of Hidalgo Plaza
in front of the county courthouse. The plaza has a bust of the Mexican independence
leader Padre Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla,qv after whom the county is named. The
building, originally the county jail, has a trap door for hanging that has been
used only once. Later the building became a city hall, and in 2005 it housed
the county historical museum. During the late twentieth century Edinburg had
an annual population growth of 3.4 percent. The 2000 population was 48,465.
Population: 48,465
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