Stamford, Texas

Stamford is known for its Texas Cowboy Reunion, four days around July 4, dedicated to the Old West. The Reunion was started in 1930 as nonprofit community enterprise, and is unchallenged as the greatest amateur rodeo in the world. The population of the city more than triples when 500-plus rodeo contestants and thousands of spectators converge. Rodeo prizes include cash, trophies and handmade saddles, and food is served from chuck wagons. It includes a major Western art show at the rodeo ground pavilion.

Stamford is the retail, banking and commercial center for a three-county area. Business facilities include grain elevators, cotton gins, a delinting plant, cotton compress, clothing factory, cottonseed oil mill, feed mill, oil well machinery, and wholesale outlets. Developed in 1899 as a project of the Texas Central Railroad, Stamford was named after the Connecticut hometown of the railroad president.