"Fort Worth" a Fort Worth Travel Page by tejanasueca

Often dismissed as some kind of poor relation to Dallas, in fact has a rush and energy largely missing in its more complacent neighbor thirty miles east. Unlike comparably cosmopolitan Dallas, this is one of the most "Western" cities in Texas. In the 1870s it was the last stop on the great cattle drive to Kansas, the Chisholm Trail ; when the railroads arrived, it became a livestock market in its own right, with its own packing houses, while remaining a haven for cowboys and outlaws. The cattle trade is still a major industry, after aviation and defense, but the city can also pride itself on its thriving cultural life. Unlike the more anxious Dallas, Fort Worth doesn't feel the need to brag about its many excellent museums . For a place so wealthy (the grand Western Hills area claims to have proportionately more millionaires than any other US locale), it's surprisingly laid-back.

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Fort Worth's main attractions fall tidily into a triangle anchored by downtown with the Cultural District and the Stockyards two miles away to the west and north respectively. The chief focus of downtown Fort Worth is Sundance Square , a leafy, redbrick-paved fourteen-block area of shops, restaurants and bars between First and Sixth streets, ringed by glittering skyscrapers and pervaded with a genuine enthusiasm for the town's rich history. It owes its existence to vast injections of cash from the Bass family; the whole ensemble is dominated by the two gleaming glass skyscrapers of the Bass-owned City Center Towers , while the extremely tasteful Nancy Lee & Perry R. Bass Performance Hall (tel 817/212-4325, ) is evidence of its continuing development. Notice the carvings of longhorn skulls everywhere, and the many trompe l'oeil murals - especially the Chisholm Trail mural on Fourth Street between Main and Houston streets.

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Naming the square after the Sundance Kid isn't particularly appropriate; he, and other outlaws such as Bonnie and Clyde, spent their time a few blocks south, just north of I-30 at the city's original settlement. Even into the 1950s " Hell's Half Acre " was renowned for bawdy lawlessness; these days it's much less exciting, although the bubbling fountains and pools of its central Water Gardens offer refreshing respite.

The ten-block Stockyards Area , with its wooden sidewalks and old storefronts centered on Exchange Avenue two miles north of downtown, is a evocation of the days when Fort Worth's stockyards made this "the richest little city in the world."