McLean is a town in Gray County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Pampa micropolitan statistical area. Its population was 665 as of the 2020 census.
Geography
McLean is located in southeastern Gray County. Interstate 40 passes through the southern part of the town, leading east to Oklahoma City and west to Amarillo. Interstate 40 Business (Old U.S. 66) passes through the town as First Street (westbound) and Railroad Street (eastbound), connecting to I-40 at Exit 141 west of town and Exit 143 to the east. Texas State Highway 273 runs along the western edge of McLean, accessing I-40 at Exit 142 and running north then northwest to Pampa, the Gray County seat.
According to the United States Census Bureau, McLean has a total area of , all land.
History
thumb|left|McLean as seen from an airplane, looking south
In 1901, Alfred Rowe, an English rancher who later perished in the sinking of the Titanic, donated land near a railroad cattle-loading stop for the establishment of a town site. The Choctaw, Oklahoma and Texas Railroad Company constructed a water well and a switch and section house there. The town was named for Judge William P. McLean (1836–1925) of the Texas Legislature and Railroad Commission. The town grew rapidly. By 1904, McLean had three general stores, a bank, two wagon yards and livery stables, a lumber yard, and a newspaper, the McLean News. A windmill pumped water from a well drilled in the middle of Main Street, and citizens hauled the water in barrels and buckets. The town was incorporated in 1909, with C. S. Rice as mayor, and became a center for agriculture.
In 1927, the Mother Road, U.S. Route 66, was built through the town, and it became a stop for tourists and a center for oil, livestock, and agriculture processing and shipping. By 1940, the population had risen to 1,500 with six churches, 59 businesses, and a newspaper. In 1942, a prisoner-of-war camp was built east-northeast of the town, and was operated until 1945, housing about 3,000 German prisoners.
As the prominence of other Texas Panhandle cities, especially Amarillo and Pampa, surpassed McLean, the town began to decrease slowly in size. In 1984, the town was bypassed as part of the final phase of construction of Interstate 40, which replaced the old U.S. Route 66 through that area.
Demographics
thumb|right|Former Phillips 66 station
As of the census
National Register of Historical Places
The McLean Commercial District, consisting of most of the downtown area, was listed in the historical register on December 20, 2006.