Where the West Begins — Fort Worth Stockyards, the Kimbell Art Museum, and Cowboy Culture at Scale
Fort Worth has long positioned itself as the authentic cowboy counterpart to Dallas — 'Where the West Begins' is not just a slogan but a civic identity backed by the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District, where longhorn cattle still parade down Exchange Avenue twice daily and the White Elephant Saloon has been pouring whisky since 1887. The city's museum mile — the Kimbell Art Museum (designed by Louis Kahn), the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art — puts Fort Worth in the first rank of American art cities. Bass Performance Hall is among the…
Fort Worth began in 1849 as a US Army outpost on the Trinity River — one of a chain of forts built to protect settlers moving into Comanche territory. The railroad reached in 1876, turning it into a cattle-drive destination and the meat-packing centre of the southwest, with the Stockyards processing millions of cattle and hogs annually through the early twentieth century. The oil discoveries of the 1910s brought a second wave of wealth, funding the cultural institutions that now define the city. Fort Worth and Dallas have been economically intertwined since the 1970s — the DFW metroplex is th…