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FORT WORTH STOCKYARDS |
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The Fort Worth Stockyards is the heart of Cowtown. Like the Alamo is to San Antonio, the Reunion Tower is to Dallas, the Space Needle is to Seattle, the Golden Gate Bridge is to San Francisco, the Statue of Liberty is to New York City, the Gateway Arch is to St. Louis, the Stockyards is to Fort Worth. In a city which claims to be "Where the West Begins", the Stockyards is the best proof of that claim, with its modern day Texas Cowboys and Longhorn Herds wandering the streets, occasional gunfights, plenty of saloons and some real good barbecue, the Stockyards is really the true Cultural District of Fort Worth. |
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The classic Stockyards view, looking west on Exchange Avenue near the White Elephant Saloon which is to the right in this view, as is the Love Shack. To the left is H3 Ranch, where almost everything has a hickory smoke flavor, and is connected to Booger Red's Saloon with its notorious Buffalo Butt Beer. In Booger Red's there is a buffalo butt on the wall. The buffalo goes straight thru the wall into H3 Ranch where its head is on the wall. H3 Ranch, Booger Red's and the Stockyard Hotel are all interconnected. This may be the premier location in the Stockyards. |
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Another view on a another day of the most photographed location in Fort Worth. Here you see a lone cowboy who seems to be looking for his herd. | |||
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On the first day of March of 2008 Hillary Clinton
showed up at the Fort Worth Stockyards for a campaign rally.
Go
to our Blog and read all about |
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The White Elephant Saloon is known for its white elephants, its ceiling covered with cowboy hats, its picking by Esquire Magazine as one of the Top 100 bars in America, its service as a set for some TV show about a Texas Ranger named Walker, for its annual re-enactment of an infamous Fort Worth gunfight. As of winter of 2007, the White Elephant Saloon's Beer Garden is now the Love Shack. Part of the growing empire of celebrity chef, Tim Love's restaurants, which in the Stockyards also includes his critically acclaimed Lonesome Dove Bistro. The Love Shack is a hamburger joint, making really good burgers, onion rings and shakes of the day. Cash only, but there's an ATM. | |||
Most Fort Worth Stockyard's visitors do not realize a river runs through it, well, actually a creek, Marine Creek, which a short distance from this point will join the Trinity River. In this photo we are standing under the bridge which most people walking on Exchange Avenue don't realize they are on when they are in the White Elephant Saloon or standing near the Fort Worth Stockyards sign. There is a paved trail called the Marine Creek Linear Park of which this location is a part. In this photo we are looking south towards the Saunders Park area of the Marine Creek Linear Park | |||
Now we are in the aforementioned Saunders Park, overlooking Marine Creek. This is a very attractive, scenic part of the Stockyards that few see. There is a sign on the south side of Exchange Avenue pointing visitors to an alley that leads to the park, but that one sign seems to be the only effort made to direct people to this location. Tim Love's Lonesome Dove Bistro is the only Stockyards venue to take advantage of this asset. The Lonesome Dove has a deck overlooking the park where diners can enjoy the view. | |||
A look at the Stockyards on a drizzly winter day in late February, with the Fort Worth trolley making its way down Exchange Avenue. Even on a damp, cold day there are people enjoying the Stockyards. | |||
If you turn around in the above scene and look the opposite direction, you will be looking towards the Stockyard Ruins, You can walk from this point to a close up look at the new prison built in 2007, called Sona Prison, housing mostly Panamanians, a few Americans and one Australian. Click here to view more photos of Sona Prison and the Stockyard Ruins. | |||
Now we've caught up with the lone cowboy. He still hasn't found his herd, but some tourists seem to have found him and so he obligingly poses for some photos. | |||
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Watch a short video of the Fort Worth Herd Cattle Drive through the Stockyards | |||
Tourists come from all over the U.S. and the World to experience Texas culture, Fort Worth style. Here we see a Marilyn Monroe look-alike from Hollywood after being tossed to the padded ground by a Mechanical Fort Worth Bull. You can find the Mechanical Bull next to the Cowtown Cattlepen Maze across from Stockyard Station and next to the Tarantula Train. | |||
The Cowtown Cattlepen Maze was the final task on The Amazing Race 5 on CBS. The maze seems to be modeled after the actual Stockyards cattlepens which you will see as you scroll down this page. | |||
Looking down on the maze from the Observation Deck. There is another deck inside the maze that maze runners can go up to try and figure out how to get out. | |||
Instructions and admission info signs for the Cowtown Cattlepen Maze. | |||
The most popular and famous restaurant in the Stockyards Historical District is Joe T. Garcia's Mexican Dishes. Joe T's has a large indoor area, but the attraction which has made it famous is the Fiesta Gardens. One square city block of beautiful outdoor seating. Each weekend thousands converge on Joe T's for food and fun on the patio. | |||
Here we see a Dallas power broker negotiating a deal by
the pool at Joe T's Fiesta Gardens. She appears to be shooing away the
paparazzi.
NOTE: The pool at Joe T.'s is no more. |
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A very colorful mural covers the south wall of the Cross-Eyed Moose Antique store. An equally colorful mural also covers the Cross-Eyed Moose bus. The Cross-Eyed Moose is located on Main Street across from the decrepit old New Isis Theater with its long stalled promise of a new New Isis Theater. | |||
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Billy Bob's of Texas. The world's largest honkytonk. Billy Bob's is huge, with 32 bars, an indoor rodeo arena, giant dance floors. It's a spectacle. Here we see the Fort Worth Trolley making a stop in front of Billy Bob's on its circuit between Downtown, the Cultural District and the Stockyards. |
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A pair of Cowgirls off their horses inside Stockyard Station. | |||
A rare view of the actual Stockyards, with Downtown Fort Worth about 4 miles south. A boardwalk takes you over the top of the Stockyard pens. It runs from behind Billy Bob's to behind the Fort Worth Stock Exchange building. Explore around and you'll find your way onto this part of the Stockyards. You'll also likely get some close up looks at longhorns and sometimes other critters, like pigs, depending on what event is taking place at the Stockyards. |
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The Fort Worth Herd viewed from the boardwalk above the Stockyards. Twice a day (weather permitting) cowboys drive the herd through the heart of the Stockyards. Watch video of the Fort Worth Herd Memorials to heroes of the west, the Texas Trail of Fame, sort of like Hollywood's Walk of Stars, are embedded in the sidewalk along Exchange Avenue. |
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Watch
video we took March 13, 2010 on |
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Click
here for a map showing the |
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Check
out the prison housing Panamanians |
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The aforementioned Fort Worth Stock Exchange building, the reason Exchange Street is called Exchange Street. From the name it is a good guess that cattle trading takes place here. |
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The Cowtown Coliseum. The Stockyards Championship Rodeo takes place every Friday and Saturday night at 8 pm.. Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show starts June 9, 2007, Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 pm and 4:30 pm. There is some fancy shooting during Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show. During a Stockyards street event the Cowtown Coliseum offers reliable escape from the heat. The story of Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving is told during the Wild West Show here. They were the inspiration for Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. This pair of cowboys is mentioned often in the Stockyards. |
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A cowboy and his Longhorn. This is the same Longhorn on which Big Ed was sitting for his famous wild cowboy photo. For a very small fee you can sit on the Longhorn. But be sure to pay the fee. There have been incidents where the cowboy and his Longhorn have chased a tourist who felt snookered by the payment request. |
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Just like in Downtown Fort Worth's Sundance Square there are many libation purveyors in the Stockyards and it is a daily ritual re-supplying them. Here we see a Shiner Bock truck parked under the Stockyards sign outside the White Elephant Saloon....Shiner is the state beer of Texas. It is brewed in a little town called Shiner. Hence the name. |
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It seems that the General Store at the heart of the Stockyards on the west side of the intersection of Exchange Avenue and Main Street is claiming to be the actual spot Where the West Begins. |
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The infamous Big Balls of Cowtown, honky tonk by night, subject of a song heard round the world. Big Balls of Cowtown is a very modern place, with indoor plumbing,. |
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The east end of the main drag of the Stockyards, also known as Exchange Avenue. This photo is a good example of what sometimes surprises visitors to the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas. That being that there is a lot of greenery, as you can see here, on the first day of Fall. You are looking west in this photo at the Stockyards Station sign that hangs above this end of Exchange Avenue. | |||
The photo to the left was taken before noon. So the feeding establishments weren't open yet. In a few hours the outdoor patio at Riscky's Barbecue will be filled with people eating all the ribs they can eat. Riskcy's tastes good. On Friday and Saturday nights a stage is set up across the street and this becomes a very entertaining place to spend a couple hours. Riscky's Barbecue is inside Stockyard Station, which consists of restaurants and shops and through which the Tarantula Trains runs. The Tarantula Train Station is inside Stockyard Station. The train sets there while the engine continues on across the street near the Cowtown Cattlepen Maze where a huge rotating mechanism turns the engine around so it can take off on another track in order to re-enter Stockyard Station from the back side of the parked train so it can re-connect in order to pull the train to its other station, that being the other end of the Tarantula route in the town of Grapevine. |
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The Tarantula Train's water tower. When you have a
steam powered train engine you need water. Here we are looking north,
across from Stockyards Station, towards the roundtable turnaround that
sends the Tarantula Train back to Grapevine. The Cowtown Cattlepen Maze
is to the right. The Cowtown Mechanical Bull is to the left.
The Tarantula Train is the oldest continuously operating steam engine in the South, with the slight caveat that "Puffy" the 1896 Steam Locomotive #2248 has been off-line for awhile undergoing maintenance, which is understandable for a piece of equipment over 110 years old. Taking "Puffy's" place is a 1953 Vintage Diesel engine. Passengers on the Tarantula Train ride in 1920s era Victorian style coaches. |
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A closer look at the Tarantula Train roundtable turnaround. If you've ridden San Francisco's cable cars you've likely helped with a roundtable turnaround. In the Stockyards passengers do not need to help turn the engine around. It manages the feat all by itself. | |||
"Puffy," the elderly vintage 1896 Steam engine, getting turned around. It was soon after this photo was taken that "Puffy" went on an extended vacation to get some much needed rehabilitation. | |||
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It's almost 11. Time to find a place to watch the Fort Worth Herd.... |
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Visit our Eyes on Texas Blog
to make a comment about the Fort Worth Stockyards |
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