Denton, Texas map
33.21° N · 97.13° W · Denton County seat · elev. ~640 ft · Central Time
Denton is the 23rd-largest city in Texas and the point where Interstate 35 divides: I-35E runs southeast to Dallas, I-35W runs south to Fort Worth, and the two do not meet again until Hillsboro, 100 miles away. Two universities and a courthouse square from 1896 sit inside the fork.
The Y in the interstate is at the bottom of the frame. Loop 288 rings the east side; Lewisville Lake lies southeast, Ray Roberts Lake north.
Where Denton is in Texas
Denton sits at the northern corner of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, about 40 miles from each downtown and roughly 30 miles south of the Oklahoma line. That equal distance is not a coincidence: the interstate splits here precisely because the two anchor cities are the same drive away, and Denton has been the shared northern gateway for both since the highway was built.
It is the seat of Denton County, whose population more than doubled between 2000 and 2020 to 906,422 and which now holds most of the metroplex's northern expansion — Frisco, Flower Mound, Lewisville, Little Elm and Argyle are all in the county, and Carrollton straddles its southern line. Cooke County and Gainesville are to the north, Collin County east, Tarrant County south and Wise County west.
The city is in the drainage of the Elm Fork of the Trinity River, and the county's two big reservoirs sit on that fork upstream and downstream of the city: Ray Roberts Lake about 12 miles north, and Lewisville Lake about 10 miles southeast. The Cross Timbers — post oak and blackjack oak woodland on sandy soil — runs through the western part of the city, which is why Denton has trees where Plano and McKinney have prairie.
Highways
- I-35E – southeast from the split through Lewisville and Carrollton to Dallas.
- I-35W – south from the split through Justin and Fort Worth's north side.
- I-35 (north of the split) – a single route north through Sanger and Valley View to Gainesville and Oklahoma.
- US-380 (University Drive) – east through Cross Roads, Little Elm and Frisco to McKinney; west to Decatur and, eventually, US-287.
- US-377 – southwest to Roanoke and Haslet; north out of the city to Pilot Point, Tioga and Whitesboro.
- Loop 288 – the eastern half-ring linking I-35E to US-380, carrying the Golden Triangle Mall traffic.
- FM-2181 (Teasley Lane) – southeast to Corinth and Lake Dallas along the I-35E corridor.
Areas and neighborhoods
| Area | What's there |
|---|---|
| The Square | The 1896 Denton County courthouse, now a museum, ringed by bars, record shops and restaurants |
| UNT / Fry Street | University of North Texas campus just south of the square, Apogee Stadium on the west |
| TWU / north Denton | Texas Woman's University campus on Bell Avenue, north of the courthouse |
| Loop 288 / Golden Triangle | Golden Triangle Mall and the main retail belt on the east side at I-35E |
| Rayzor Ranch | Newer shopping and housing where US-380 meets I-35 |
| Southeast Denton | Neighborhoods running toward Corinth, Lake Dallas and the Lewisville Lake shoreline |
| West Denton | Denton Enterprise Airport and industry along US-380 and I-35W |
| Ray Roberts Lake (north) | Isle du Bois and Johnson Branch state park units on the Elm Fork above the city |
Two universities and a square
Denton was laid out in 1857 as the seat of a county created in 1846, both named for John B. Denton, a preacher and soldier killed in a frontier raid. The courthouse that anchors the square was finished in 1896 in a rough-cut limestone Romanesque style and now houses the county's history museum; the square around it is still the commercial center of the old town rather than a preserved shell.
The University of North Texas opened in 1890 as a teachers' college and is now one of the largest universities in the state, with a music school that gave Denton its long-standing reputation for jazz and for the bands that come out of the Fry Street area. Texas Woman's University, founded in 1901, sits about a mile north across the same city. Between them the two schools give Denton a student population large enough to shape the whole downtown.
Transit ties the city to the rest of the metroplex: the A-train commuter line runs from downtown Denton southeast to Carrollton, where it meets the DART Green Line into Dallas. Denton Enterprise Airport, west of town, is one of the busiest general-aviation fields in North Texas.
Distances from Denton
| City | Road miles | Route |
|---|---|---|
| Carrollton | 25 | I-35E S |
| Frisco | 25 | US-380 E |
| McKinney | 35 | US-380 E |
| Dallas | 40 | I-35E S |
| Fort Worth | 40 | I-35W S |
| Sherman | 55 | US-377 N / US-82 E |
| Wichita Falls | 115 | US-380 W / US-287 NW |