Friday Feature: History of the Fort Worth Stockyards

by | Aug 9, 2024 | Ag History, Agritourism, Beef Cattle, Feature Video, Livestock

This week’s featured video was an episode of Red Stegall’s Somewhere West of Wall Street, which aired on RFD TV before being uploaded to YouTube.  This video shares the rich history of Fort Worth, Texas, also known as “Cow Town.”  After the Civil War, Texans returned home with very little money in their pocket, but found thousands of cattle roaming the state.  Trail drives were organized to slowly push cattle north to railroad towns in Kansas to cattle buyers that would purchase the cattle and ship them by train for meat processing in Chicago.  In the video, Steagall says, “Before the Stockyards were built, between 1866 and 1890, more than 4 million cattle were trailed up the ‘Old Chisholm Trail’  from Fort Worth to rail-heads in Kansas.  Fort Worth was the last place to stop and buy supplies before heading north through Indian territory.”  In 1889 the Fort Worth Stockyards open for business with 258 acres of cattle pens to ship cattle directly from Fort Worth by train.  Then in 1904, the Armor and Swift Meat packing companies opened meat plants right at the Stockyards.  Cattle were processed direct from the Stockyards in Fort Worth up until 1971.  Today the Fort Worth Stockyards has become a tourist destination to see museums, enjoy restaurants, shops, and the longhorn cattle drives right down the main street twice per day.  Watch the video to learn more about the historic Texas Cow Town that started as the launch of the Texas Cattle Drives but was later transformed to the largest cattle market south of Kansas City, and is now a living history tourist destination in downtown Fort Worth, Texas.

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If you enjoyed this video, you might want to check the other 300+ YouTube videos highlighted in the  Friday Feature Archive

If you come across an interesting, inspiring, humorous or innovative video related to agriculture, please send in a link, so we can share it with our readers.  Use the share button from the YouTube or Facebook video you like and send the link via email to:  Doug Mayo

 

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