In about 1866, the Stockyards in Fort Worth was a bustling livestock trade center. By 1900 over a million cattle a year as well as other livestock were being sold and traded. The area was a hub of trade, where ranchers could sell their livestock and trade for goods, such as leather and building materials.
Today, this Registered Historical District Is an active tourist center. The streets are lined with restaurants, famous leather and western supply stores, hotels, Souvenir shops, and the historic Cowtown Coliseum. Twice daily a reenactment cattle drive, much like the old days, occurs. Volunteers herd longhorn cattle down the street as onlookers experience them up close and personal. A small bit of what it would have been like to see these massive cattle slowly walking the streets as they head to various parts of the stockyard.
We arrived early to see a 2:30 Bullfighting show at the Cowtown Coliseum. I’ll give our opinion of this event in another post. Parking wasn’t difficult. There are many options, from stopping along the main street for valet service, to just using one of the many self-pay parking lots available. Before and after the show, we explored some of the shops and old-style saloons. We also sat down for lunch at Risckys BBQ, which I will review as well. The smell of leather filled the air of the local shops, and outside you could smell the meats being smoked at the various BBQs. The streets are early 1900s brick streets and one way traffic through town made way for cars, as well as old western carriage tours.
The sidewalks were wide and made room for many vendors, from photo ops with horses and longhorn cattle, to stands where you could grab a whisky and Coke or a beer to walk around town with. It was hot out, and we both needed to take frequent breaks to cool off. Even though it was a busy weekend, we had no problems finding empty benches and cold water along the way. But, be prepared for the price gouging. A bottled water was $6 and a cold beer was $9.
We found the interior, away from the main street, very intriguing. Many of the old livestock corals and chutes are still present. Even though shops have reclaimed them and use them as passageways and shops walls, you can still definitely see how livestock was contained and moved from place to place for the trade center. We explored as much as possible of them, but we eventually just had to give up walking the seemingly endless passageways.
As we were leaving for the day, a large old style passenger train stopped in the middle of town. It was the Grapevine Railroad, and they offer many short or long tours. The Stockyards is one of the stops, where they allow passengers to explore for 2 hours, before reboarding and continuing on their way. We checked the pricing and it seems very reasonable. If we were going to be here longer, a six hour train ride for under a hundred bucks for the two of us, would definitely be something we would want to take advantage of.
Overall, we absolutely loved the Stockyards. We would love to come back and stay for a weekend at one of the hotels. I highly recommend the place, and if you are at all into western apparel, this is the place to get the good stuff.
[…] it turns out, the Cowtown Coliseum is in the Stockyards at Fort Worth. Check out my review of The Stockyards, here. We Purchased Box seats, and the online portal showed there was only 3% seating left. We felt […]