Fort Worth History

Indians. Cattle. Railroads. Oil. The Western History of Fort Worth reads like the history of the American West.

In its youth, Fort Worth was a rough-and-tumble frontier town, dusty and lawless, home to the brave and the brawling, the soldier, the frontiersman, the outlaw. Today, Fort Worth, one of the largest cities in Texas and the 17^th-largest city in the United States, is a destination shaped by its revitalized downtown, a world-renowned cultural arts district, beautifully preserved Western-heritage sites and major-league attractions.

Originally settled in 1849 as an army outpost at the Trinity River, Fort Worth was one of eight forts assigned to protect settlers from Indian attacks on the advancing frontier. Progress helped the growing settlement survive long after other such towns had blown away with the dust of departing pioneers.

The cattle industry was king for a generation of people working the Fort Worth leg of the historic Chisholm Trail, which ran from the 1860s to the 1870s. Cowboys worked and played in Hell's Half Acre, located where downtown Fort Worth stands today, before driving the cattle on the Chisholm Trail to its ending point in Kansas.

Fort Worth became the heart of the Trail and the heart of the state's ranching industry when the Texas & Pacific Railway arrived in 1876. In the years that followed, oil and aviation brought new wealth throughout the region, and a city grew where a camp once stood.

The post-war years found Fort Worth capitalizing on its strengths as a transportation, business and military center.  Cultural pursuits included the development of the city's internationally known museum district, built alongside the Will Rogers Memorial Center, which opened in 1936, and Casa Mañana Theatre.

The mid-1980s saw the start of a major revitalization of that city's downtown, beginning with the construction of Bass Hall - permanent home to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Texas Ballet Theater and Fort Worth Opera. In the years that followed, developers broke ground on office towers and hotels, the city remodeled the Convention Center, and downtown's Sundance Square grew to a 35-block commercial, residential, entertainment and retail district where people work, live, shop and dine.

Still, many of Fort Worth's earliest buildings endure to this day - art deco skyscrapers stand beside older redbrick stalwarts in downtown's Sundance Square, flanking wide brick sidewalks lined with elm and live oak. And though the dust of the old west is gone, Fort Worth's proud Western heritage lives on, blending with thriving commerce and culture to create a destination unlike anywhere else in the world.