It is hard to miss the farmland off the Dallas North Tollway that has been in the Haggard family. The land is reminiscent of what Collin County, and even Plano, used to look like.
"The land that is around us right now is part of that 1856 settlement," said Clint Haggard, a fifth-generation Haggard. The family holds a long legacy of farming in the county. Clint is talking about the land that sits around the Dallas North Tollway and Windhaven Parkway.
"It was quiet and peaceful; you could see downtown Dallas from here," said Rutledge Haggard, a fourth-generation Haggard recalls in his early days.
Over time, the Haggards, who will not say how much they own out of humility, have sold land to development. They will admit they are pitched ideas so often about the land that remains. "I say weekly or biweekly. We got someone knocking on the door wanting to do something," said Rutledge.
The Haggards are patient. They are waiting for the right idea and also happy to keep the land as is. "We're stewards in what's been given to us, we're not investors," said Clint.
They do know they want Plano's oldest home, once theirs, back on their property. The Collinwood Home, built in the 1850s, sits on a truck ready to be moved to the Haggard Farm on Wednesday. This ended a nearly four-year struggle by the city to find a solution for the home. "It's going between the barn and my grandfather's house," said Clint.
Farming is as much Haggards chapter as it is Plano's. "This is home. I can't think of another place that is better than right here," said Rutledge.