With a couple of months left in Arlington’s yearlong sesquicentennial celebration, Mayor Jim Ross and the Arlington City Council have authored a letter to residents who will call the city home 100 years from now. The letter will be placed inside the Arlington 150 Time Capsule, which will be dedicated Nov. 6, 2026, alongside the planting of Arlington’s sesquicentennial tree, a Chinquapin Oak native to North Texas, in observance of Texas Arbor Day.
The time capsule includes a collection of items that capture Arlington’s story in 2026. Among them are commemorative sesquicentennial stickers and bookmarks, city annual reports, ticket stubs from the International Bowling Museum and the Texas Rangers, memorabilia from the Dallas Cowboys and contributions from a variety of community partners.
Together, these items offer a snapshot of the people, organizations and experiences that helped shape Arlington during its 150th year. The letter from the Mayor and City Council serves as a message across generations, preserving the community’s hopes and reflections for those who will celebrate Arlington’s 250th anniversary in 2126.
The full letter appears below.
To the people of Arlington, 2126:
If you are reading this letter, 100 years have passed since we placed it inside this time capsule during Arlington’s 150th anniversary.
We can only imagine the Arlington you know.
In 2026, nearly 400,000 people call Arlington home. We are a diverse and growing community in the heart of North Texas, situated between Dallas and Fort Worth but very much a city with an identity of our own. We call ourselves The American Dream City, a name that reflects our belief that Arlington is a place where all people can build a life, raise a family, start a business, pursue an education and dream about what comes next.
This is an extraordinary year to be in Arlington. As we celebrate our 150th anniversary, our city is welcoming people from around the world for nine FIFA World Cup matches at AT&T Stadium. The World Series Champion Texas Rangers, our Major League Baseball team, play just across the street at Globe Life Field. The Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League also call Arlington home. Six Flags Over Texas, an amusement park that opened 65 years ago, is still thrilling new generations. And one of the newest landmarks in our city, the National Medal of Honor Museum, now tells the stories of some of our nation’s greatest heroes. But those landmarks are only part of Arlington’s story.
The Arlington of 2026 is also Saturday mornings at youth sports fields, students walking across the campus of The University of Texas at Arlington, families gathering in our parks, concerts under the stars at the Levitt Pavilion, Friday night high school football, neighborhood restaurants serving food from around the world, and generations of families building lives together.
During this anniversary year, we wanted to celebrate all 99 square miles of Arlington and the people who made this city what it is. Throughout 2026, we planted 150 trees every month across our community, with the signature tree planted here in Rotary Dream Park beside this time capsule. We collected recipes, memories and stories. We created art, held concerts and performances, explored our history, and invited residents to help us imagine Arlington’s future.
Some of those pieces of 2026 are preserved inside this capsule. They may seem ordinary to you. We hope they do. They were chosen because they tell a little bit about what everyday life was like here in our time.
A century ago, the Arlington residents of 1926 could scarcely have imagined our city today. Arlington had only a few thousand residents then. They could not have envisioned our skyline, our universities and hospitals, our entertainment venues, our technology, or the hundreds of thousands of people who would eventually call this place home.
We recognize that we are in much the same position as we write to you.
We do not know how large Arlington has become by 2126. We do not know how you travel, communicate or work. We wonder what became of the places that are so familiar to us today, what you preserved, what you changed and what you built that we could never have imagined.
But we hope some things have endured.
We hope Arlington remains a community that welcomes people and gives them the opportunity to build their own American Dream. We hope you still value your neighborhoods, celebrate together, care for one another and take pride in this city. We hope you inherited a community that previous generations worked hard to leave better than they found it, and that you feel the same responsibility to those who will follow you.
Most of all, we hope that as you celebrate Arlington’s 250th anniversary, you feel connected to the generations who came before you, including ours.
In 2026, we inherited a city built over 150 years by people who believed Arlington’s best days were still ahead.
One hundred years later, we hope you can say the same.
Happy 250th anniversary, Arlington.
With pride in our past and great hope for your future,
The Mayor and City Council
City of Arlington, Texas
2026