THEATRE, A FAMOUS ONION, AND CITRUS GOWNS

Weslaco derives its name from the development company that arrived in the Rio Grande Valley in 1910 during the region's agricultural boom, a period of growth facilitated by the introduction of commercial-scale irrigation. The W.E. Stewart Land Company, one customer in a series of land transactions that took place during the development of the town, offered up its acronym and it stuck. Agriculture is still big business in the area. The famously sweet 1015 Onion was developed by Dr. Leonard Pike at the Texas A&M University Weslaco Station and the town now celebrates this claim-to-fame with an annual Onion Fest every spring. Celebrating the fruits of the land with pagentry has deep roots in Weslaco. The Weslaco Museum, housed in a 1928 city hall designed in the attractive Spanish Moorish tradition, helps to put the past in prospective, including the Weslaco Style Show of the 1930s, a unique celebration populated by women dressed in clothes made from local fruits and vegetables. Other year-round entertainment choices include the WesMer Drive-In for a family movie or catching a live performance in the old water storage facility now known as Weslaco Tower Theatre.