Fort Worth, Texas

Visited Mar. 8-11, 2021

 

By Janell

Our main purpose for stopping in the Fort Worth area was to visit family and friends - my side this time. While in the area though, we found the Forth Worth Stockyards National Historic District to be very interesting! 

 

 

At the turn of the century the Fort Worth Live Stock Exchange Building was built. A whirlwind of activity for more than half a century, it was dubbed the “Wall Street of the West”. The biggest sale volume on record at the Fort Worth Stock Exchange took place in 1945 when 1.6 million head of cattle and calves were sold here. That's a lot of beef!

 

 

 

 

 

Meat packing companies Armour & Co. and Swift & Co. opened in Fort Worth in March of 1903. They processed an average of 2.5 million cattle, hogs and sheep each year. By the middle of the century, Fort Worth had the third largest stockyards in the US. It employed thousands of people, many who were immigrants from Europe. Armour & Co. closed in 1962, and Swift & Co. closed in 1971.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the things to see while here is the longhorn steer drive. Twice a day real Texas cowhands drive a herd of Texas longhorns down East Exchange Avenue. Every detail of the cattle drive -- from the saddles and chaps to the boots and hats -- is authentic and historically true. However, I suspect this daily drive is purely for the tourist entertainment; but perhaps it could also be considered exercise for the longhorns?

"C'mon Chuck, the sooner we get this gig overwith, the sooner we can get back to chowing down on some hay!"

Fort Worth Cowtown Coliseum was built in 1908

It hosts the world's only year round rodeo every Friday and Saturday night (indoors).

The cattle pens with downtown Fort Worth in the distance

From 1866-1890 Forth Worth was the last civilized stop on the Chisholm Trail – literally “where the west began”

"The world's largest honky tonk" - we'll have to catch it next time!

Of course, you would expect to see "The Duke" in a cowtown such as this

This is a brand new hotel that's opening soon in Mule Alley

 

We learned that Cowboys are known as "Drovers"; as in they drove the cattle.

 

After all this western adventure we were craving some Texas BBQ, so we hustled off to the H3 Ranch where we shared a plate of ribs and smoked sausage for lunch. Very tasty!

It was enough for our travel day lunch the next day, and Marty's lunch on the following day!

I thought these were illegal!

Apparently only one state, North Dakota, actually banned the sale of them from 1953-1967. The United States considered national bans on candy cigarettes, both in 1970 and 1991, but neither passed.

Not long after the 1970 bill consideration, however, the word "cigarette" disappeared from candy cigarette packaging, to be replaced by the word "sticks". Yeah, that's helpful . . .

To their credit, these countries have completely banned the sale of candy cigarettes: Brazil, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.

 

 

We learned a few things in the Stockyard Museum too -- too much to share it all here of course, but here are a couple of tidbits for you.

When cowhands came to town they would want to get cleaned up a bit before hitting the saloons. Makes sense. But did you know . . .

. . . that it was 15¢ for "first water" and only 5¢ for "used water"? Eww!

See the light bulb?

Apparently this bulb from the Palace Theater is the second longest burning bulb in the world. Big deal. Those of you from Livermore & Pleasanton, California know where the longest burning bulb is, right? 

The Centennial Light is the world's longest-lasting light bulb, burning since 1901, and almost never switched off. It's maintained by the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department.

We were surprised to see (on the paper below) that the museum gave Livermore proper credit. We enjoyed telling the lady at the museum desk that we live in Livermore, and as you might expect she'd never met anyone from Livermore before.

Of course, we also found a couple of breweries in the area that we liked.

3 Nations Brewing Co. in Carrollton, TX had quite an impressive set-up

Some breweries and pubs have a "mug club" where the regulars have their own personalized mug hanging on a wall.

3 Nations has a Mutt Club! I love it!

Although, you might notice that "Bean" and "Tank" are not mutts

Good name for a brewery in Fort Worth, wouldn't you say?

We thought this was a pretty clever (and cute) advertisement