TEXAS NEIGHBORS | WINTER 2018 By Jennifer Dorsett Field Editor Cattle drives, museums and Lone Star attractions—the Fort Worth Stockyards of-fers a peak into Texas’ history. Stockyards Museum The history of Fort Worth is linked to the cattle business. Because of that, the Fort Worth Stockyards is one of the most au-thentic views of agricultural history in Texas. “Cowtown” earned its name and pur-pose as drovers pushed cattle through the city. Between 1866 and 1890, more than four million head of cattle came through the town. What had been a supply point before along the Chisolm Trail soon became a hub of eco-nomic growth centered around livestock. In 1876, the railroad arrived, and Fort Worth became a major shipping point for livestock. The arrival of the railroad meant cattle no longer had to be driven all the way to Kansas to load into railcars. Instead, ranchers from all over the Southwest could bring them to Fort Worth, a considerably closer distance and safely away from hos-tile territories. The stockyards were built in 1887 to hold the massive shipments of cattle and other livestock being shipped from Fort Worth. The first Fat Stock Show was held the year before, in 1886, and the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo has since continued every year for over a century. Over the years, the stockyards became known as “The Wall Street of the West,” be-cause of the amount of money that flowed around the livestock shipping and meat-packing industries. During World War II, the Fort Worth Stockyards processed more than 5.2 mil-lion head of livestock. But after World War II, everything changed. The railroad declined. And so did the stockyards. Newly-paved roads led to the trucking industry boom and a change in the way cattle were shipped and marketed. But the history lives on in the Stock-yards Museum. It’s home to a collection of artifacts, photographs and historical trea-sures, including the world’s second-longest burning light bulb that has been burning continuously for 109 years. WWW.TEXASFARMBUREAU.ORG