Chasing Cattle!

The Fort Worth Stockyards is a National Historic District located in Fort Worth, Texas north of the central business district. The stockyards are a former livestock market which operated under various owners from 1866. The arrival of railroads in 1876 made the area a very important livestock center. Fort Worth remained an important part of the cattle industry until the 1960s.

The Fort Worth Stockyards now celebrates Fort Worth's long tradition as a part of the cattle industry and was designated as a historical district in 1976. Many bars and nightclubs (including Billy Bob's Texas) are located in the vicinity, and the area has a Western motif. There is also an opry and a rodeo.

The Fort Worth Stockyards are the last standing stockyards in the United States. Some volunteers still run the cattle drives through the stockyards, a practice developed in the late 19th century by the frontiersman Charles "Buffalo" Jones, who herded buffalo calves through the streets of Garden City, Kansas.