30 Fun Facts About Fort Worth, Texas

by Janis on April 11, 2015

We’ve visited Fort Worth, Texas multiple times for business and fun. Some terrific friends live near Fort Worth, and anticipation of an upcoming weekend visit, we thought it would be fun to do a little background research on the “City of Cowboys and Culture.“

30 Fun Facts About Fort Worth, Texas

1. The city of Fort Worth began as Camp Worth on the bank of the Trinity River in 1849.

2. Fort Worth was one of seven army posts established between 1848 and 1849 to protect settlers of West Texan following the Mexican – American War.

3. Major General William Jenkins Worth was second in command during the Mexican – American War. A hero after the war, Worth was placed in command of the Department of Texas, and in January 1849, he proposed a line of ten forts to mark the western Texas frontier from Eagle Pass to the confluence of the West Fork and Clear Fork of the Trinity River. One month later, Worth died from cholera.

4. General William S. Harney assumed command of the Department of Texas and ordered Major Ripley A. Arnold to find a new fort site near the West Fork and Clear Fork. On June 6, 1849, Arnold established a camp on the bank of the Trinity River and named the post Camp Worth in honor of the late General Worth.

5. The new camp flooded. In August, 1849 Arnold moved the camp to the north-facing bluff which overlooked the mouth of the Clear Fork of the Trinity River.

6. While the Fort Worth military post closed in 1853, the Tarrant County Courthouse stands today on the same bluff location.

7. Built from pink granite from central Texas, the Tarrant County Courthouse was completed in 1895 after more than two years of construction. Although the Courthouse building project came in nearly 20 percent under budget, the citizens of Tarrant County were outraged by the perceived extravagance, and responded by voting the County Judge and all of the Court Commissioners out of office during the next election.

8. Starting in 1856, regular stagecoach service passed through Tarrant County, carrying mail and passengers from the east on to the frontier forts and the West Coast.

9. By the 1870’s, mail stagecoaches arrived and departed from downtown Fort Worth six days a week.

10. After the Civil War through the late 1870’s millions of cattle were driven through Fort Worth along the legendary Chisholm Trail, a dusty path linking the Jesse Chisholm’s southern trading post near the Red River to his northern trading post near Kansas City, Kansas. Fort Worth became the center of the cattle drives, and later, the ranching and cattle trading center, earning its “Cowtown” nickname.

11. Today Fort Worth continues the cattle connection with a free twice-daily cattle drive in the Stockyards National Historic District. At 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. each day, Texas cowhands drive a herd of Texas longhorns down Exchange Avenue.

12. Four museums – The Cowgirl Museum, the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, the Cattle Raisers Museum and the Cattleman’s Museum – celebrate Fort Worth’s cattle industry heritage.

13. Since 1896, Fort Worth is home to the annual Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show, the oldest stock show and rodeo in the United States. Commonly known as the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, the event occurs in January to February each year at the Will Rogers Memorial Center on the west side of the city.

14. In 1902, Swift & Company, Armour & Company and McNeill & Libby all established meat packing houses in Fort Worth. Over time, Fort Worth became the packing house center of the southwest.

15. On September 21, 1908, the Palace Theater Light Bulb which began burning as a backstage light at the Old Byers Opera House. It continues to burn today.

16. During World War I the Canadian government established three flying fields around Fort Worth, selected because the mild climate allowed for year-round training. When the United States entered the war, it took over those fields and renamed them Carruthers and Barron.

17. Camp Bowie was built in the Fort Worth area in 1917 at a cost of more than $3,000,000.

18. In 1917 oil was discovered in the small towns of Ranger and Burkburnett, Texas. Fort Worth, strategically located between the two areas, experienced an oil boom, too, for the throngs of operators, promoters and speculators.

19. By 1920, five new oil refineries had been built in Fort Worth, with four more under way. This, along with a network of lines made Fort Worth “The pipeline center of Texas.”

20. On July 4, 1935, Joe T. & Jessie Garcia opened Joe T. Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant in part of their home in Fort Worth, Texas. The original restaurant had a maximum capacity of sixteen. The Garcias served their famous enchiladas in the front room while they expanded their home during decades. Today, the restaurant encompasses most of a city block and serves up to 2,000 customers every weekend. It’s one of our favorite dining experiences when we visit Fort Worth.

21. During World War II, a Quartermaster Depot, Marine Air Base and the Fort Worth Army Air Field were constructed in Fort Worth. The Consolidated-Vultee’s aircraft plant was established. During the war, the mile-long plant produced more than 3,000 B-24 Liberator bombers, with a peak employment of 32,000.

22. The USS Fort Worth is a Freedom-class littoral combat ship of the United States Navy. She is the first ship to be named after Fort Worth, Texas.

23. Over coffee one morning in 1946, Mrs. E L. (Eloise) Snyder and Mrs. August (Betty) Spain, both former opera singers, and Mrs. Jeanne Axtell Walker decided it was time for Fort Worth to launch an opera company of its own. The Fort Worth Civic Opera Association opened with its first production, La Traviata, on November 25th, 1946. The Fort Worth Opera is the oldest continuously performing opera company in Texas.

24. In 1933, the historic Stockyards Hotel in Fort Worth was one of outlaws Bonnie and Clyde’s hideouts from the law. Today you can stay in the same room occupied by Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker during their 1933 stay in Ft. Worth. The Bonnie and Clyde Junior Suite features a king-size bed and a variety of historic artifacts including Bonnie’s .38 revolver, photographs, newspaper clippings and a poem written by Bonnie for Clyde.

President Kennedy in Fort Worth on Friday morning, November 22, 1963. He was assassinated in Dallas later in the day.

25. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy delivered his last public speech at a Fort Worth Chamber breakfast before leaving for Dallas.

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26. Originally built as a cattle barn in the early 1900s, Billy Bob’s Texas promotes itself as “The World’s Largest Honkey Tonk.”

27. Approximately 60 percent of the paper money in the United States is printed at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Fort Worth. Visitors to The Western Currency Facility can see billions of dollars printed from an enclosed walkway which is suspended above the production floor. Free self-guided tours are offered on weekdays at the facility.

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28. Singer-songwriter John Denver graduated from Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth.

29. Fort Worth is home to the Kimbell Art Museum, known as a small museum with a world-class collection including works by El Greco, Cezanne, Rembrandt, Picasso, and Matisse. The museum’s initial artwork is from the private collection of Kay and Velma Kimbell. The Kimbell’s also funded a building by renowned architect Louis I. Kahn to house the collection.

30. Founded by 25 women who sought to bring a different sort of culture to the cattle-focused city, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth was originally known as the Public Library and Art Gallery. The Modern Art Museum features contemporary paintings, sculpture and photography. It is the oldest museum in Texas, as well as one of the oldest museums in the western United States.

What fun fact can you add about Fort Worth, Texas? Please share in comments below.

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