Welcome to Bell County! With Ft. Hood to our west, best of the best hospitals and cancer research center in Temple, quaint Salado to the south, and the premier Belton Independent School District and ever growing Belton located in the middle, we have a lot to brag about! New subdivisions are being developed throughout the area. Old homes are being renovated. Downtowns are being revitalized. We hope you will want to get in on our exciting opportunities! 

Salado is the oldest of these three Central Texas towns. It was the stopping place chosen by pioneer families who came to the newest state in the mid 1840s from more refined areas of the United States. Salado was chosen because of its fresh water supply on the banks of Salado Creek, as well as the numerous springs in the area. Early on, the residents determined a need for advanced education for their children, and Salado College was established and it became a major draw to attract new families to the small town. Salado continued to grow until the 1880s when the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company began its rail line to connect Texas with the rest of the states. The railroad became the main artery for commercial and economic development, and when Salado found itself “off the beaten track,” with no rail line or depot, its population rapidly declined. Today, Salado is enjoying new growth as folks discover its small-town atmosphere, and country amenities now so close to major population centers, thanks to the more recent line of commercial and economic development, Interstate-35. 

In 1850, Bell County was formed, and with it the town of Belton, the County Seat. In 1882 after a controversial and some still say shady transaction, a railway spur and depot was built in Belton, the small town soon outranked its older and larger parent town of Salado in population and commerce. After buying the right-of-way from Belton citizens, the railroad officials decided to resurvey the tracks away from Belton, build a brand-new company town and name it after one of their engineers - Bernard M. Temple. A few years later, in 1886, however, Belton beat out Temple in persuading Baylor Female College to relocate there from its original campus in Independence, Texas. Now the University of Mary Hardin - Baylor, the school ranks among the best small private universities in the country. It went co-educational in the 1970s and added a Division 3, non-scholarship football team twenty years later. 

The early days of Temple were defined by the railway that made its way to Central Texas by December of 1881. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company was the major employer, offering jobs on the trains, company machine shops and business offices. In 1892, Dr. A.C. Scott and Raleigh R. White, Jr. arrived in Temple to work at the railroad’s own Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Hospital to treat company employees. In order to offer services to the rest of the city, the doctors opened the Temple Sanitarium in 1904, which has grown into one of the fastest-growing hospitals in the 20th century, the Scott & White Memorial Hospital. Temple has now grown to a population of almost 50,000 people who enjoy the small-town community with big-city amenities such as the Temple Symphony Orchestra and Temple College.  

For more information on the history of the area, visit the Bell County Museum in Belton and the Railroad and Heritage Museum in Temple. (links?) 

For more information on these towns today, visit the Belton Area chamber of Commerce and the Temple Chamber of Commerce as well as the city. 

Request our Free Belton, Temple and Salado Relocation Package. It's packed full of useful and important information about the Belton, Temple and Salado, Texas area. Don't move here without it! Remember: we'll send it to you for free and without obligation. Just fill out the form and we will send it right out... 

It's our job to know EVERYTHING about Belton, Temple and Salado! Ask us any question. Or request a FREE information package. There's no obligation, and we promise to get back to you quickly...