Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Don't forget to scoot into Billy Bob's, the world's biggest honky-tonk. Down in the
Cultural District, tour the Cowgirl Museum and three amazing art collections. Then, after
you've meditated on minimalism, Sundance Square's restaurants and bars call you to the
kick-up-your-heels downtown.
Whatever you do, don't mistake Fort Worth for being Dallas' sidekick. This city's got a
headstrong spirit of its own, and it's a lot more user-friendly than Dallas (not to mention
greener and cleaner). Bottom line? There's a lot to do here - without a whole lot of pre-
tense.
History
Fort Worth got its start in 1849 as Camp Worth, one of a string of military forts on the
Texas frontier, and later found fame during the great open-range cattle drives, which las-
ted from the 1860s to the 1880s. Most of the time, the herds moved on to the end of the
trail in Kansas. Yet after the railroad arrived in 1873 and stockyards were established at
Fort Worth, many drovers chose to end their trek here.
The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw rampant lawlessness in Fort Worth. Robert
LeRoy Parker and Harry Longabaugh (better known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid) spent a lot of time hiding out in a part of downtown known as Hell's Half Acre, and
Depression-era holdup artists Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow also kicked around the
city.
RODEO CLOWNS
While it sounds like a particularly cruel cowboy insult, it's an actual profession, and one of the most notoriously
dangerous in the rodeo industry. As a performer who works in bull-riding events, a rodeo clown's function is to
protect a rider from being gored by the bull should they fall off the horse. But how? By distracting the bull, of
course, which accounts for their colorful clothes. Sometimes the clowns jump in and out of a barrel, which offers
minimal protection but requires even more agility, and sometimes the clowns entertain the crowd between events.
Through it all, this remains a job for the wily and fleet-footed: the bulls never laugh.
Yet most of the mayhem in Fort Worth came not from celebrity ne'er-do-wells but from
rank-and-file cowboys with too much pent-up energy from the trail. They were the ones
who boozed and brawled their way down Exchange Ave, giving Fort Worth a far different
image than that of Dallas.
