| Reality for Fort Worth was in the beginning a scratching, clawing, never-say-die hunger for survival. Reality was Hell s Half Acre, a law- less section of downtown Fort Worth that attracted cowboys, railroad workers and buffalo hunters. Reality was the Indians who were here, the soldiers who came and the settlers who survived. Reality was the heartbreak of many failures and the heart-thumping elation of an occasional success. Happiness was the coining of the railroad and the vestbustin pride during the short life of the Texas Spring Palace. Reality was the booming prosperity brought by the big Armour and Swift meat packing plants. Fort Worth from the start has been an oasis for cowboys. In the 1860s and 1870s, the cowboys came during the trail drive era to rest their herds, to buy their provisions -- and to be entertained. Through the 1880s, the cowboys came to the new railroad to ship their livestock, and stayed to buy their supplies-- and to be entertained. In the 1890s -- and for another 50 years after establishment of the Armour and Swift meat packing plants -- the cowboys came to market their animals,to buy their hats, boots and saddles--and to be entertained. Fort Worth and the Stockyards National Historic District today is history that lives. Much still remains to remind what it was. A visit to the Stockyards is a fun-filled, adventurous step into the past that is available nowhere else. Old-time cattlemen love Fort Worth and the Stockyards. You still see them swaggering in front of the turn-of-the-century buildings and swapping tall tales in the saloons along Exchange Avenue. Old habits are hard to break. As a stockyards tour guide I was surprised when a young visitor from Germany had her heart set on pushing into a saloon through swinging doors. That s what she wanted the West to be. We no longer have saloons with swinging doors. Even cowboys have come to appre- ciate air conditioning, and swinging doors aren t efficient. So saloons have changed. The West has changed also...and yet it hasn t. This book is about 150 years of .change, and of much that hasn tchanged. The best way to get a feel for what it was is to explore what is left. To know the Stockyards, you first must know Fort Worth. That iswhere this guide begins. The rest is a story of the evolution of a quiet piece of prairie threemiles north of town into one of the world s busiest livestock markets. Enjoy your trip to the Fort Worth Stockyards. There will never beanother place like it. |
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