Denton is the country seat of Denton County and presently hosts a population of approximately 120,000. The Oklahoma-Texas border is roughly 47 miles north of Denton and Dallas lies 49 miles southeast.
The University of North Texas, that is the biggest university within Northern Texas, and Texas Woman's University are located within the city of Denton and between the two of them host more than 45,000 students. The Texas Woman's University was initially a single-sex collage but in 1994 the institution became co-ed. Denton is usually characterized as a college town because of the universities present there.
Denton County was first formed from a Texas land grant during the year 1846. The city of Denton was founded shortly after in the year 1857. The city of Denton was named after a pioneer and Texas militia captain, John B. Denton. The city of Denton was able to distinguish itself from the surrounding regions by establishing the two state colleges.
Denton City has an economy that is largely based on educational services, retail trade, health and social, and manufacturing services. The businesses within these sectors employ approximately 20,000 people. Over twelve thousand jobs are given because of the three educational institutes and the city hires approximately 1,300, of which 300 are public safety employees. The Golden Triangle Mall is one of the major sources of retail trade, which hosts over ninety specialty shops. The most significant businesses which have their headquarters within the city of Denton consist of Peterbilt, Sally Beauty Company, and Jostens.
Denton hosts several festivals and events all through the year. During Springtime, there is a Jazz and Arts festival within the city which attracts thousands of tourists to the area. Over 300,000 people come to the yearly Jazz and Arts festival and the North Texas State Fair and Rodeo. The city of Denton was named by Scene magazine as the "Best Music Scene" during the year 2008. The Cinco de Mayo, Dog Days of Summer, the Fry Street fair and the Twilight Tunes are some of the other popular yearly events. Racing fans are happy to find that the Texas Motor Speedway is located approximately 14 miles south and Denton Dragway is located around five miles north of Denton City.
There are several cultural places within the city, consisting of the Bayless-Selby House Museum, Denton County, Denton County Historical Museum and Texas Heritage Centre, Courthouse-on-the-Square Museum, hangar 10 Flying Museum, Gowns of the First ladies of Texas, Historic Downtown Denton, Little Chapel-in-the-Woods and the UNT Sky Theater Planetarium.