Dallas is the unsuspecting home and birthplace of many beloved American gems. If you’ve ever been thankful to stumble upon a 7-Eleven, you might want to thank Dallas for that. And the fun facts don’t stop there. Read on to find out more about some little known facts about Dallas.

Thank Heaven for 7-Eleven

We have Dallas to thank for 7-Eleven, and therefore the Slurpee. In the old days, you’d have to go to an ice house to buy ice. In 1927, Southland Ice Company (headquartered in Dallas) employee John Jefferson Green had the bright idea to sell other staples like milk, bread, and eggs; thus, the convenience store was born.

First known as Tote’m stores because customers would “tote” their purchases away, the franchise name was changed to 7-Eleven in 1946 to reflect the stores’ new hours of operation (7am to 11pm), which were unprecedented at the time. Today, 7-Eleven is the largest grocery store chain in the world, with over 60,000 storefronts operating across 16 countries.

Jimmy Buffett did not invent the frozen margarita machine

Inspired by the Slurpee machine at 7-Eleven, a young restaurateur named Mariano Martinez adapted a soft serve ice cream machine to make frozen margaritas in 1971. Frozen margaritas had been around since the invention of the blender in 1922, but were only able to made one pitcher at a time. Now, bartenders could premix the margarita, then simply pull a lever to get to Margaritaville. With the process streamlined, demand for tequila went up, as did the popularity of a frozen marg’s perfect partner, Tex-Mex cuisine.

Texan Chocolate Cake

Turns out, German chocolate cake isn’t actually German at all. Back in 1852, chocolatier Sam German created a type of sweet baking chocolate for the Baker’s chocolate company, called German’s Chocolate. Over a hundred years later, Dallas homemaker Mrs. George Clay (who knows her first name, it was the fifties) submitted her recipe for a layered German’s Chocolate Cake that was filled and topped with a coconut-pecan frosting to The Dallas Morning News in 1957. The recipe was so popular that German’s Chocolate sales shot up 73 percent in one year. General Foods, which owned the Baker’s brand at the time, took notice and distributed the cake recipe to other newspapers in the country. Somewhere along the way, the possessive form (German’s) was dropped, tricking us all into thinking the delectable treat had German origins.

The Dallas area is the largest metropolitan area in the nation not on a navigable body of water

A lot of our country’s big cities were built around ports of trade, but Dallas was built around railroads and interstates. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington has grown into the fourth largest metro area in the country, even though you can’t get there by boat. There are plenty of lakes to play in though! Lewisville Lake, Lake Ray Hubbard, Ray Roberts Lake, Grapevine Lake, Joe Pool Lake, and Lavon Lake are all in the DFW area.

DFW is larger than Manhattan

At 17,207 acres (27 square miles), the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is larger than all of Manhattan (22.82 square miles). It’s the second largest airport by land area in the US (behind Denver), and the third largest in the world. DFW is so big,  it has its own ZIP code. It’s also one of the busiest in the US. Only Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, LAX, and Chicago’s O’Hare airport see more action.

Everything’s bigger in Texas

Dallas is also home to the nation’s largest urban arts district. The Dallas Arts District takes up 68 acres downtown, consisting of 19 blocks of museums, venues, and galleries. The performing and visual arts district serves as a hub for creativity and inspiration, and it houses the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Dallas Theatre Center, to name a few. 

Outlaws

Before becoming a gambler and gunslinger, Wyatt Earp’s sidekick John Henry Holliday was a dentist in Dallas. That’s why they call him Doc, get it?

The infamous crime duo Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are also from the region. The pair spent 21 months on the run, robbing local banks, gas stations, and restaurants before meeting their fate. Both outlaws are buried in Dallas at different cemeteries.

Football Country

Dallas is football country. For starters, Dallas resident and American Football League founder Lamar Hunt coined the term “Super Bowl,” which at the time was referred to as the AFL-NFL Championship Game. Also, originally named the CowBelles & Beaux, The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders were the first ever professional cheerleading squad in 1972, ushering in a new era of cheerleading entertainment. Finally, the Cowboys Stadium is so big, the Statue of Liberty could fit in it with the lid closed. If you don’t love football before moving to here, Dallas will make sure you do.

America’s first shopping center

The ritzy Highland Park Village opened in 1913 as the first and only planned cluster of retail shops in the country and still stands today, with luxury retail shops from Jimmy Choo to Christian Louboutin. In fact, DFW has more retail space per-capita than any other metro area in the country.

TI-83

Thanks to electrical engineer Jack Kilby, along with fellow Texas Instruments engineers Jim Van Tassel and Jerry Merryman, we have the personal calculator. That’s because Kilby invented the first integrated circuit (aka microchip) while working at TI in 1958. Thanks to that microchip, we can now also find our lost pets. Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000.

Diverse City

Dallas is rated a beta(+) global city, which makes it a major world city. Its diverse economy includes dominant sectors such as defense, financial services, information technology, telecommunications, and transportation. Nine Fortune 500 companies are headquartered within the city limits, including AT&T and Southwest Airlines. Additionally, Fortune 500 companies like American Airlines (Fort Worth), ExxonMobil (Irving), and J.C. Penney (Plano) are all headquartered within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.

These are just a few of Dallas’ interesting facts, and there are still so many things to learn about this beta+ global city. If you’re thinking of moving to Dallas, get a head start on your apartment search and find your new place before you even arrive. That way, you’ll have all the time you want to explore your new city.

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