Originally published Saturday, February 6, 2010 at 11:00 AM
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Rounding up cowboy destinations
Fort Worth is the city with the slogan "Where the West begins," and it's a good place to start a cowboy tour of Texas.
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RON T. ENNIS / AP
Twice-daily cattle drives are held in Fort Worth's historic Stockyards district.
G.J. MCCARTHY / AP
As the evening sun sets behind them, young cowboys sit atop a cattle guard before the start of a rodeo in Honey Grove, Texas.
Cowboy culture
Here are some other places to explore the cowboy culture of Texas:
Bandera
In the picturesque Texas Hill Country, Bandera calls itself the Cowboy Capital of the World. Almost everything in Bandera has cowboy flair. Even Mardi Gras is a cowboy celebration, with a pub crawl on horseback. You can tour ranches, dance or sip a cold one in authentic honky-tonks (with live music most nights), watch roundups and parades or simply stroll the streets that many National Rodeo Champions call home. Bandera Visitors Bureau: www.banderacowboycapital.com or 800-364-3833.
Mesquite
The Mesquite Championship Rodeo in a Dallas suburb (1818 Rodeo Drive, Mesquite) is entering its 53rd season. Rodeos run every Friday and Saturday night from June 4 through August 28 this year. www.mesquiterodeo.com or 972-285-8777.
Amarillo
Amarillo became central to the cattle-moving business when the railways moved in during the 1880s, and you can still find real ranch cowboys walking around. Amarillo hosts the WRCA World Championship Ranch Rodeo (for working cowboys, www.wrca.org) each November, and is home to the newly renovated American Quarter Horse Museum, www.aqha.com.
Pecos
Pecos claims to be the home of the nation's first rodeo (128 years ago), and rodeo's still popular here. The annual West of the Pecos Rodeo, June 23-26 this year, is the biggest: www.pecosrodeo.com
Don't miss the West of the Pecos Museum in the Orient Hotel, built in 1904. It chronicles the dusty region's history, including cattle, railroads and outlaws. www.westofthepecosmuseum.com
Kingsville
The King Ranch in southwest Texas is an 825,000-acre spread founded in 1852 by Capt. Richard King. One of the world's largest ranches, it's now home to 60,000 cattle and 300 quarter horses. Take a 1 1/2-hour tour and visit its King Ranch Museum. www.king-ranch.com
Cox Newspapers and Seattle Times
Fort Worth
Fort Worth Stockyards
Get details on the area at www.fortworthstockyards.org
Fort Worth Herd
For information on the twice-daily cattle drive in the Stockyards district, see www.fortworthherd.org or phone 817-336-4373.
Stockyards museums
Fort Worth Stockyards Museum, www.stockyardsmuseum.org/ or 817-625-5082.
Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, www.texascowboyhalloffame.com/ or 817-626-7131.
Beyond the Stockyards
The National Cowgirl Hall of Fame is in Fort Worth's museum district, and covers women of the American West, from cowgirls such as Dale Evans to Willa Cather, Patsy Cline, Sandra Day O'Connor and Sacagawea. www.cowgirl.net or 800-476-3263.
Fort Worth's National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum highlights the roles of African Americans, Hispanic Americans and others in the West. www.cowboysofcolor.org or 817-534-8801.
The Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, an annual event with several weeks of rodeos, livestock shows, concerts and more, wraps up this weekend. www.fwssr.com/
More information
Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau, www.fortworth.com or phone 800-433-5747 to get a visitor's guide. For details on Fort Worth's Western heritage, see www.fortworth.com/visitors/western-heritage/
Kristin Jackson, Seattle Times
Northwest Travel Guides
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"Eau du cow" wafts across Fort Worth's Stockyards district just before 11:30 a.m., and that can mean only one thing: It's time for the daily morning livestock drive down the Texas city's Exchange Street.
Cows and cowboys meander slowly down the street, passing in front of the Fort Worth Stock Exchange building, which houses not Dow-traders but people who actually exchange livestock. Fort Worth is the city with the slogan "Where the West begins," and it's a good place to start a cowboy tour of Texas.
The Stockyards in the 1800s was the last major stop on the Chisholm Trail before cattle herds headed across the Red River into Indian country. Today the neighborhood on the north end of Fort Worth is a mix of real cattle trade and tourist trade. A national historic district, it offers restaurants, nightclubs and shops with a Western motif — and the twice-daily cattle drives. At 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily, the cows come out for the short trail drives.
Inside the neighborhood's Stock Exchange is the little Fort Worth Stockyards Museum, with Comanche and cattlemen's artifacts, including a display of different kinds of barbed wire, saddles, arrow points and pottery.
Check out the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame across the street on Exchange Avenue. It's filled with old carriages, saddles and a vast collection of horse bits. There's a row of stalls, each dedicated to the history of a famous Texas rodeo cowboy.
In the same block, is a Fort Worth Visitors Center where you can pick up a $15 GPS tour that will take you 45 minutes, hit the area's high spots and tell you all about the history of the Stockyards.
You might want to drop by the area's White Elephant Saloon for a beer amid some real cowboys. And check out the sprawling Billy Bob's Texas, the Western-themed emporium where you eat, drink, shop, watch live rodeo — and learn to line-dance.
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