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Famous Cattle Towns

Fort Worth, Texas: How Cowtown Became a Cattle Marketing and Packing Center

Fort Worth began as a place where drovers rested and grew into one of the largest livestock markets in the country.

Why is Fort Worth called Cowtown?

Fort Worth got its nickname from the cattle drives of the 1860s and 1870s. The Fort Worth Stockyards history page reports that between 1866 and 1890 drovers trailed more than four million head through the city, which became known as Cowtown. Cowboys rested there before driving cattle on to the railheads of Kansas and Missouri, a point also made by the Encyclopedia of the Great Plains.

Because herds stopped there on the way north, the town learned early that drovers were customers. The trade gave Fort Worth its identity long before the railroad gave it a market.

How did the railroad change Fort Worth?

The railroad changed the town from a stop on the trail into a shipping point. The stockyards history dates the railroad's arrival to 1876, and the Encyclopedia of the Great Plains says the Texas and Pacific Railway made Fort Worth its eastern terminus. Once cattle could be loaded in Texas rather than driven to Kansas, the long drives lost much of their purpose.

Fort Worth eventually had eight railroads, which the encyclopedia credits with spurring its economic growth, and the city had 26,668 residents in 1900, making it the fifth-largest in Texas.

The Union Stockyards and the packing plants

The city built the Union Stockyards in 1887, about two and a half miles north of the county courthouse. Greenleif Simpson bought the yards on April 27, 1893, for $133,333.33 and renamed the company the Fort Worth Stockyards Company. Around 1900 investors persuaded Armour and Company and Swift and Company to build plants nearby, and in 1902 Armour won a coin toss for the northern site while Swift took the southern site, which included a gravel pit.

Meatpacking became the city's main local business. The Livestock Exchange Building also began construction in 1902 and earned the nickname Wall Street of the West. A coliseum followed in 1907, completed in 88 working days and hosting the first indoor rodeo, and a livestock show, the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show, began in 1896. The stockyards timeline and the encyclopedia entry agree on that 1902 start for the big packing plants.

What Made It Work

Fort Worth turned a moving trade into a permanent one. The documented record shows how.

The same record shows the limits of the model, because the packing economy depended on live cattle arriving by rail and truck.

  • It was on the trail corridor first, so drovers already knew the town before the railroad came.
  • It secured the railroad in 1876, and by 1900 it had eight lines.
  • It built a public stockyard in 1887 and then attracted Armour and Swift, which gave the city processing jobs rather than only pens.
  • It created institutions around the trade: the Livestock Exchange Building, the 1896 livestock show and the 1907 coliseum.
  • It served several markets at once, and in 1917 the stockyards was the largest horse and mule market in the world.
  • The cost was dependence: when the plants closed, north-side unemployment rose above 20 percent.

Peak years and decline

The stockyards reached its peak year in 1944, when 5,277,496 head of livestock were processed during World War II. After the war the packing industry changed and the plants began to close. The stockyards history says Armour closed its Fort Worth plant in 1962 and Swift closed its plant in 1971, while the Encyclopedia of the Great Plains reports both plants closing in 1962, so sources differ on Swift. Either way, the closures hit the north side hard, with unemployment above 20 percent.

Sales at the stockyards hit an all-time low of 57,181 animals in 1986.

The Stockyards National Historic District today

The Stockyards Museum opened in the Exchange Building in 1989, following a push by the North Fort Worth Historical Society, which Charlie and Sue McCafferty founded in 1976. The district now hosts what it calls the world's only twice-daily cattle drive and more than 100 shopping, dining and entertainment venues.

The Cowtown Coliseum remains in use. To keep following ranching history beyond Texas, see the ranching pages at farm.FM and a farm.FM story about the Fort Worth Stockyards.

Timeline

  1. 1849Fort Worth dated to this year as a military post
  2. 1866Drives begin; more than four million head would pass through by 1890
  3. 1876Railroad reaches Fort Worth
  4. 1887Union Stockyards built
  5. 1902Armour and Swift begin construction of packing plants
  6. 1907Coliseum construction begins; first indoor rodeo
  7. 1944Peak year: 5,277,496 head processed
  8. 1962Armour closes its plant; Swift follows by 1971 per the stockyards history

Frequently asked questions

Why is Fort Worth called Cowtown?

Between 1866 and 1890 drovers trailed more than four million head of cattle through Fort Worth on the way to northern railheads. The city later became a major packing and marketing center, and the nickname stuck.

When were the Fort Worth Stockyards built?

The city built the Union Stockyards in 1887. Armour and Swift constructed large packing plants nearby starting in 1902, and the stockyards processed a peak 5,277,496 head of livestock in 1944.

Is the Fort Worth cattle drive real?

The Stockyards National Historic District stages what it calls the world's only twice-daily cattle drive, a daily reminder of the trail era when drovers passed through the city.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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