Fort Worth + Canada History
2017 also marks the 150th anniversary of the historic Chisholm Trail and the centennial of WWI. Here are three historic ties between Fort Worth and Canada during the days of the Chisholm Trail and World War I.
1. John Ware (1845-1905) was an African American cowboy who traveled up the Chisholm Trail as a drover and is noted as the first person to drive cattle from Texas to Alberta, Canada (1882). There is a statue of him in the Glen Bow Museum in Calgary honoring this feat. 2017 also marks the 150th anniversary of the historic Chisholm Trail.
2. After the United States' entry into World War I in April 1917, General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing invited the British Royal Flying Corps (RFC) to establish training fields in the southern United States where the warmer weather would be more conducive for flying year-round. RFC representatives from Canada inspected five potential sites in Texas and Louisiana for use during the winter and selected three sites in Fort Worth. The Canadians named the training complex Camp Taliaferro after 1st Lieutenant Walter R. Taliaferro, a U.S. Army aviator. The RFC trained nearly 6,000 men in Fort Worth. Camp Taliaferro had an administration center near what is now the Will Rogers Memorial Center in the Fort Worth Cultural District.
3. Fort Worth’s Greenwood Memorial Park includes a Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorial to honor the Canadian and British WWI airmen who were stationed in Fort Worth at Camp Taliaferro.