Travel
F
ort Worth is a vibrant cowboy
(and cowgirl) town, with
a lively downtown district,
a cultural center with five
museums including the
National Cowgirl Museum and Hall
of Fame, and the famous National
Stockyards Historic District, where
drovers herd twice-daily longhorn
cattle drives through the very heart
of town.
From “boom” to “bust”
several times over
But it wasn’t always a city with
culture. The story of Fort Worth is
actually a tale of a series of “boom”
and “bust” cycles that helped define
the town’s character, ultimately
carving it out as a premiere western
city. Somehow, with each “boom”
it grew bigger, and with each
“bust” it emerged stronger.
Founded by the U.S. War Department
on November 14, 1849 as a western
outpost to protect pioneers and
settlers from Indian attacks, the
sleepy fort soon found that its
fortunate geographic coordinates
made it an ideal juncture for cattle
drives, and later, the ranching
industry. Located on the Old
Chisholm Trail, it soon was
nicknamed the “Cowtown”, because
Fort Worth was the last major
supply stop for drovers heading
cattle up to the railheads in Kansas.
Over 4 million cattle stomped
through Fort Worth between
1866 and 1890.
The coming of the Texas & Pacific
Railway in 1876 created another
boom, with Fort Worth now boasting
the title of westernmost railhead –
a boon for the shipment of cattle.
Typical of the Wild West in the
1880s and 1890s, the needs of
drovers, cattle rustlers, gamblers,
and gunslingers were met by
a concoction of bars and brothels,
the largest concentration of
iniquity south of Dodge City. It was
appropriately called Hell’s Half Acre.
By 1917, the discovery of oil in West
Texas insured another boom for Fort
Worth, with five refineries built to
meet the fuel demands of World War
I. Later, during World War II, Fort
Worth would become home to the
B-24 bombers, where planes were
manufactured and pilots trained.
Fort Worth today:
thriving cowboy culture
Today, cowboy culture is alive and
well in this West Texas city of about
775,000 people. It is a colorful
composite of cattle drives, railroads,
The best place to start any visit to
Fort Worth is where the past meets
the present. The Stockyards National
Register Historic District is almost
a destination unto itself. Here, you’ll
find a twice-daily cattle drive herded
through the streets of town, driven
by some of the friendliest drovers.
After you catch the cattle drive,
head over to the Texas Cowboy Hall
of Fame Museum.
sport and business of rodeo, and the
western lifestyle.” Be sure to save
some time for the Sterquell Wagon
Collection, the world’s largest
collection of lifestyle wagons.
Of note is the Chuck Wagon, which
was first developed in the 1860s by
Charles Goodnight. The cowboy’s
“kitchen on wheels” was an integral
part of cattle drives between South
Texas and the Kansas railheads. The
cook usually tended to be an older
or injured cowboy who knew how
to make food. Staples included salt
pork, beans, coffee