9/30/2011 - Fort Worth Stockyards

Yesterday, we drove into Fort Worth to the historic Stockyard District. It was a lot of fun to hear and see the area and learn about the old west cattle drives. We had visited this area with Josh about 10 years ago when we had an extra few hours before catching a flight out DFW. This time we were sightseeing at a much leisurely pace!
Above is the Cowtown Coliseum where Pawnee Bill started the first indoor rodeo in the late 1800's. He eventually partnered with Buffalo Bill in his show. Twice a day they do a cattle drive through the streets. Check out those horns on those cattle!


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Then the railroad came to town and started hauling the cattle to market instead of the cowboys driving them north hundreds of miles. This was the end of the line for the railroad so this round house tuned the train cars around.


It was also sad to see the huge former meat packing plants for Armour and Swift sitting vacant beside the old stockyards.


Above is a map of the trails the cattle drives used and below is a marker noting the Chisholm Trail.