MCALLEN

city, Hidalgo county, southern Texas, U.S., in the irrigated Lower Rio Grande Valley, 7 mi (11 km) from the International Bridge to Reynosa, Mex., and 52 mi west-northwest of Brownsville. With Edinburg and Pharr, it forms a metropolitan complex. Founded in 1905, it was named for John McAllen, a Scottish settler whose ranch was the townsite. A leading winter resort, McAllen is a hub of oil and gas production. It is also a processing centre for citrus fruits, vegetables, and cotton, and a port of entry for trade with Mexico. Inc. town, 1910; city, 1927. Pop. (1990) city, 84,021; McAllen-Edinburg-Mission MSA, 383,545.