Edinburg is a rapidly growing city in and the county seat of Hidalgo County, Texas. The population was 48,465 at the 2000 census.
Edinburg is one of the principal cities of the McAllen/Edinburg/Mission Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Hidalgo County. This city is the home of the University of Texas-Pan American and the Edinburg Roadrunners, a minor league baseball team in the United Baseball League.
In 1908, John Closner, William Briggs, Argyle McAllen, Plutarco de la Villa, and Dennis B. Chapin developed a new community (the town square of which is now located at the crossroads of U.S. Highway 281 and State Highway 107). The town was named Chapin in honor of one of the developers. It became the county seat of Hidalgo County in a dramatic, nighttime covert operation in which the county records were removed from the previous county seat, Hidalgo, Texas. When Dennis Chapin was involved in a murder, the community changed its name to Edinburg to honor a prominent businessman who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Edinburg incorporated in 1919.
