Fort Worth Home to the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame

Fort Worth is home to the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. This outstanding museum celebrates many strong and courageous women who epitomized what is great about America. While the cowboy is an American icon, the many women who settled the American West are often overlooked.

The 220 inductees include everyone from the painter Georgia O’Keeffe to the sharpshooter Annie Oakley to U. S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. The museum got its start in 1975 in the basement of the Deaf Smith County Library in Hereford, Texas, and moved to Fort Worth, Texas, in 1994. It moved into its current home in the Fort Worth Cultural District in 2002.

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  • July 14, 2015
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Longhorn and the Chisholm Trail

Much of Fort Worth, Texas', early development and its nickname "Cowtown" can be attributed to its location on the Chisholm Trail. The post-Civil War trail was used to move cattle from southern Texas up to railheads in Kansas.

During the war, Texas ranchers had not been able to get their cattle to market. Because of the over supply, after the war, Texas ranchers were only receiving $4 per head for their cattle, while ranchers in the East were receiving $40 per head. In 1867, a fellow named Joseph McCoy built a stockyard in Abilene, Kansas, and urged the Texas ranchers to drive their Longhorn cattle to his yards. Once he purchased them, he would ship them East. In 1867 alone, he shipped 35,000 cattle East. Most of those ranchers driving their Longhorns to Kansas, stopped in Fort Worth.

As important as it was for Fort Worth's development, the Chisholm Trail's legend grew even…

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  • July 14, 2015
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Billy Bob’s Texas – The World’s Largest Honky Tonk

Fort Worth, Texas, is the proud home of Billy Bob's Texas, which is the The World's Largest Honky Tonk. Billy Bob's has more than 127,000 square feet of dance floors, musical stages and a rodeo arena. Although Billy Bob's Texas opened in 1981, the building dates back to 1910.

It was originally an open-air barn used to house prize cattle for the Fort Worth Stock Show. In 1936, the City of Fort Worth spent $183,500 to enclose the building and raise a tower over the main entrance. The enclosed building had 1,257 animal stalls, and a 1,200 seat auction ring that is now the rodeo arena. Livestock events were held there until the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo moved to the Will Rogers Memorial Complex, in 1943.

During World War II, the building was used as an airplane factory for the Globe Aircraft Corporation. In the 1950′s, the building…

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  • July 13, 2015
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Fort Worth Stockyards Added to Endangered Historic Places List

 

via: nbcdfw

The National Trust for Historic Preservation added the Fort Worth Stockyards to its annual list of 11 most endangered historic places. Organization officials said they include the Stockyards on their list because of the new development proposed in the area.

    .@SavingPlaces says $175 million hotel/condo/office project endangers unique historic value of @ftwStockyards @NBCDFW pic.twitter.com/adE7ItbYIT — Jeff Smith (@JeffSmithNBC5) June 24, 2015    

“I don’t know that it is a list that you don’t want to be on," Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price said. "I think it helps raise the profile of how critical the Stockyards are to Fort Worth."

The $175 million proposed redevelopment in the Historic District includes nearly 70 acres of hotels, condominiums, shopping and entertainment. The city council a…

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  • June 24, 2015
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