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Haltom City, Texas

Everything Haltom City is known for

RoadyGoat plays music like this when you drive through Haltom City. It's free on iPhone, and full songs play through Apple Music.

Music in Haltom City

Songs About Haltom City

God Bless Haltom City
The Me-Thinks
80%
"Song about HaltomCity"
Haltom City Lo-Fi Beats
Lo-Fi Streamer
80%
"Song about HaltomCity"
Easy Money Down in Texas
Ray Wylie Hubbard
5%
"Get drunk with Cody, Wade, and Cody"
Loveletters and Cigarettes
Cody Jinks
5%
"This old town's the way you left it"
We Ain't The Only Ones
Randy Rogers & Wade Bowen
5%
"Jinks is making sure that his hat fits right"

Artists From Haltom City

Rivers & Roads in Song near Haltom City

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Haltom City.

History of Haltom City

The Jeweler Who Named a Town RoadyGoat

The town spreading out around you carries the name of a Fort Worth jeweler who never really lived here. George Washington Haltom was born in an Arkansas log house in 1872, decided as a boy picking cotton that he would become a watchmaker, and by 1893 had sold his little shop for thirty dollars and headed for Texas. He built Haltom's Jewelers into a Cowtown institution and earned the nickname the King of Diamonds. With the profits he bought roughly three thousand acres of rolling grassland six miles northeast of downtown along the Denton Highway, where he ran the Diamond H Ranch and raised Hereford cattle. When a new highway pulled businesses out this way in the early 1930s, a settlement took root on his land. Haltom died in 1943, and the year after, his namesake community incorporated as Haltom City Village; in 1950 it shortened the name to plain Haltom City. So the place is named not for a founder or a battle, but for a cattle-ranching watch repairman who sold sparkle to Fort Worth. (Source: Handbook of Texas; Hometown by Handlebar.)

When This Was the County Seat (Before the Whiskey) RoadyGoat

Tucked inside today's Haltom City is the old community of Birdville, named for Texas Ranger captain Jonathan Bird, and in 1850 it won the vote to become Tarrant County's very first seat of government. For a few years it was the place that mattered: it had a log courthouse, prominent settlers like legislator Isaac Parker and judge Edward Hovencamp, and two newspapers, the Birdville Western Express and the Birdville Union, before Fort Worth had even one. Then upstart Fort Worth came for the title. In an 1856 election long remembered as marred by free whiskey and imported voters, Fort Worth edged Birdville out by a razor-thin margin. Birdville's backers cried foul, and the feud festered into years of fistfights and even fatal duels. A decisive second vote in 1860 buried the dispute for good: Fort Worth, by then the bigger town, polled 548 votes to Birdville's four. The county seat never came back. What was once Tarrant County's capital is now a neighborhood swallowed by Haltom City. (Source: Handbook of Texas; Hometown by Handlebar.)

The First Courthouse Site and the Pioneer Graves RoadyGoat

Near 6108 Broadway Avenue stands a marker noting the spot where Tarrant County's first courthouse once stood in Birdville, back when this ground governed the whole county. A short walk away is Birdville Cemetery, the resting place of the area's earliest settlers and one of the oldest burial grounds in the county. The one-acre tract was carved from the old George Akers land grant and set aside for burials before 1860; its oldest marked grave belongs to Wiley Wilda Potts, who died in December 1852. Land for the cemetery was first donated by Dr. B.F. Barkley, and the grounds grew over the decades to several acres holding well over a thousand graves. There's a quiet trick to walking it: the surnames on the headstones read like a street map, because so many roads across Haltom City, the Richland Hills, Smithfield, and northeast Fort Worth were named for the pioneers buried here. The dead, in effect, still label the living town. (Source: Texas Historical Commission marker; Birdville Cemetery records.)

Tim Cole

1986

Timothy Brian Cole, born in Brenham in 1960, served in the U.S. Army and attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock. While there, Cole was accused of assaulting a fellow student. In September 1986, a jury convicted him and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. Prior to the trial, he was offered probation in exchange for a guilty plea, and while in prison, he was offered parole if he would admit guilt. He refused to take blame for a crime he did not commit. In December 1999, he died in prison at age 39 from complications from asthma. In 2007, the Innocence Project of Texas received a letter from an inmate confessing to the crime for which Cole was convicted. Physical evidence confirmed that this man was guilty and Cole was innocent. The crime victim joined Cole’s family in the effort to clear his name. In District Court in Travis County, Cole’s advocates successfully used a court of inquiry to obtain a hearing on his innocence. In April 2009, the court declared that Cole was innocent of the crime “to a 100% moral, legal and factual certainty.” Following this opinion and order of the court, the other two branches of state government also cleared Cole’s name and record. In 2009, the 81st Texas Legislature enacted the Tim Cole Act, to compensate wrongly convicted individuals, and created the timothy cole advisory panel on wrongful convictions to reverse other wrongful imprisonments and prevent future miscarriages of justice. In March 2010, the Texas Governor’s Ooffice issued the first posthumous pardon in state history. This promise of fairness for all Texans is the legacy of a man who once wrote from prison that "I still believe in the justice system, even though it doesn’t believe in me.” 175 Years of Texas Independence * 1836 - 2011

Robert David Law

1969

_Specialist Four, United States Army_ Robert David Law was born on September 15, 1944, to Robert M. and Martha E. (Morris) Law in Fort Worth. He attended Fort Worth Technical High School, graduating in 1964, and was a member of Southcliff Baptist Church. Law enlisted in the U.S. Army at Dallas on October 17, 1967. He completed his Basic Combat Training and Infantry Advanced Individual Training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and was advanced in rank to Private First Class. He graduated from Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia, in summer 1968, and received orders to join F Company (Ranger), 52nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division in combat in the Republic of (South) Vietnam.
 From 1968-69, Law served as a scout observer and was promoted in rank to E-4 as a Specialist Four (SP4). Under a February 1969 reorganization, his unit became I Company (Ranger), 75th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. SP4 Law had been in Vietnam for eight months when he volunteered for a mission to gather intelligence near the Cambodian border, northeast of the 1st Infantry Division base camp at Lai Khe. Law paced a patrol of six rangers beginning on February 20, 1969. Within an hour of their insertion by helicopter, the patrol was in a gunfight. Law sprayed rifle fire into the woods to cover the patrol’s retreat for the night. The next day, the rangers monitored enemy troops near a log bridge over a stream. On the morning of February 22, three Viet Cong soldiers spotted the rangers and opened fire. During the exchange, a grenade rolled close to three of the rangers. Law threw himself on the grenade to save his comrades and was killed instantly. When notified about her son’s death, his mother remarked that his letters home indicated that “He knew what he was fighting for.” In August 1970 at the White House in Washington, D.C., President Richard M. Nixon presented SP4 Law’s family with a posthumous Medal of Honor for his selfless and decisive actions. (2020)

Fort Worth Stock Yards Company

1893

The Fort Worth Stock Yards Company was created in 1893, when Boston capitalist Greenlief W. Simpson led a group of investors in purchasing the Fort Worth Union Stock Yards. Under Simpson's leadership, the Company earned the support of the Texas Cattle Raisers Association and lured the prominent meatpacking companies of Armour and Swift to open plants here. Publicity through the Company's market newspaper and annual Fat Stock Show, both begun in 1896, resulted in a significant increase in the number of animals brought to market. The Stock Yards Co. built the area's livestock-related facilities and had controlling interest in many North Fort Worth businesses and properties. The first five decades of the 20th Century were the most successful for the Fort Worth Stock Yards Co. During World War I, foreign governments purchased draft animals, making Fort Worth the largest horse and mule market in the world. In 1917, overall livestock market receipts reached 3,500,000 and in 1944, sales exceeded 5,000,000 head of livestock. However, by the 1950s, local auctions were drawing sellers away from this central market. Today the Fort Worth Stock Yards Co. continues as a significant part of the city's unique heritage. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.

Historical Marker → · 4.5 mi away

Bank One Tower Tornado

2000

F3 tornado climbed the 35-story Bank One Tower on March 28, 2000, blowing out nearly every pane of glass above the third floor. Building sat empty for almost five years before being converted to luxury residential.

Local Knowledge → · 4.7 mi away

Billy Bob's Texas

1981

Billed as the "World's Largest Honky-Tonk" and located in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards district, Billy Bob's Texas, which comprises a total interior space of 100,000 square feet, along with twenty acres for parking, is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the state. Many of the brightest stars in country music have played on its stage. In addition to nightly musical performances, Billy Bob offers live bull riding, dancing, drinking, games, and more to a capacity crowd of 6,000. Billy Bob's has been nominated numerous times and, as of 2011, had won eight titles as the country music "Club of the Year" by the Academy of Country Music. The Country Music Association also has recognized the nightclub with the "Club of the Year" title three times. Billy Bob's Texas was the brainchild of Texas A&M University graduate and professional football player Billy Bob Barnett. Joining Barnett in the venture was nightclub owner Spencer Taylor, a former car salesman. The two chose an abandoned 100,000-square-foot department store that had once been an open-air cattle barn in the Fort Worth Stockyards. The original structure was built in 1910 and underwent several transformations through the years. Additional animal stalls and an auction ring were constructed in 1936, and during World War II the Globe Aircraft Corporation used the building as an airplane factory. With the additional help of investment partners Thomas and Mitt Lloyd, Barnett renovated the facility and opened the doors for business on April 1, 1981. Following on the heels of the early 1980s Urban Cowboy craze and subsequent country music boom, Billy Bob's Texas was an instant hit. The first week featured Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers , Waylon Jennings , Janie Fricke, and Willie Nelson. A host of others followed, including rockers ZZ Top and the Beach Boys and country music legends Marty Robbins and Ernest Tubb . Billy Bob's Texas helped foster many new musical acts. As the club's marketing director, Pam Minick, wrote, "Billy Bob's became the place for country music musicians to hone their skills, build a fan following, and possibly secure a recording contract." George Strait, for example, played first as an opening act at Billy Bob's. Rick Treviño placed in a talent contest at the nightclub. Ty Herndon was a member of the house band, Southern Thunder. However, problems eventually beset the nightclub. In the late 1980s, country music, Billy Bob's biggest draw, declined in popularity. Financial mismanagement and unrealized projects drained the nightclub. Billy Bob's Texas was bankrupt, and on January 8, 1988, it closed, causing great loss to the tourism industry of Fort Worth, especially the Stockyards district. Soon afterward, however, entrepreneur Holt Hickman, a Fort Worth native, sought to revive the Stockyards. Hickman's long-time friend and businessman Steve Murrin encouraged him to reopen Billy Bob's Texas. Hickman and Murrin, along with Donald K. Jury, an original Billy Bob's Texas investor, reopened the place on November 28, 1988. In February 1989, Billy Minick became a partner and manager of the nightclub. He eventually became CEO, with his wife Pam as head of marketing. When Billy Bob's Texas reopened, new headliners took the stage, including Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, and Texans LeAnn Rimes and Clint Black. As country music regained popularity, Billy Bob's focused on native talent, especially musicians who had crossover appeal. Such Texas acts as Robert Earl Keen and Pat Green became some of the club's biggest draws. The high-energy environment and close setting of Billy Bob's Texas allowed these performers to interact more with their fans. According to Pam Minick, most stars know they have made it when they have played the main stage at Billy Bob's. The club has a Handprint Wall of Fame that displays impressions of every performer who has played onstage. Many artists have recorded live at Billy Bob's. Among the first to do so were Chris LeDoux and D

Tsha Handbook → · 4.8 mi away

Fort Worth Stockyards

1876

The Fort Worth Stock Yards were officially incorporated on March 23, 1893, and the corporation was dissolved on May 31, 1944, but those who purchased it at the later date continued operations under the same name until November 1, 1981, when they leased the facilities to a company that continued using the same name. The Fort Worth livestock market became the largest in Texas and the Southwest, the biggest market south of Kansas City, and ranked between third and fourth consistently among the nation's large terminal livestock markets for five decades, from about 1905 to the mid-1950s. Texans started calling Fort Worth "Cowtown" soon after the Civil War , when drovers began herding cattle from South Texas northward to connect with the Chisholm Trail in Indian Territory and stopping in Fort Worth for supplies. Not until the Texas and Pacific Railway arrived on July 19, 1876, did promoters build pens to hold cattle, but business leaders of Fort Worth already dreamed of packing plants and stockyards to make their community a permanent focus of the cattle industry. By 1886 four stockyards had been built near the railroads. Businessmen chartered the Union Stock Yards on July 26, 1887, and opened their 258-acre facility north of the Trinity River in midsummer 1889. They also chartered a packing company. Local interests invited Boston capitalist Greenleif W. Simpson to visit, with the hope that he would invest. Simpson, with a half dozen Boston and Chicago associates, incorporated the Fort Worth Stock Yards Company in West Virginia because of more favorable tax laws there, and purchased the Union Stock Yards and the Fort Worth Packing Company in April 1893. A neighbor of Simpson in Boston, Louville V. Nile, bought half the shares. The investors struggled because of the financial panic of 1893 and other problems, but in 1896 the company began a fat-stock show that has survived to the present as one of the largest livestock shows in the nation, the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show . In 1896 stockyard owners also began a market newspaper that still exists today under independent ownership as the Weekly Livestock Reporter , the largest livestock newspaper in the Southwest. In 1897–98 the company, in connection with the Bureau of Animal Industry, gained nationwide attention by experimenting with cattle dipping to kill ticks ( see TEXAS FEVER ). An agreement Simpson and Niles made in 1902 with Armour and Swift brought in two of the nation's largest meatpackers, which constructed modern plants adjacent to the stockyards. In a stock reorganization, each packer received a third interest in the stockyards company, and Simpson, Niles, and smaller investors retained a third. In exchange for stock and land on which to build their plants, the packers agreed that each animal they slaughtered would pass through the stockyards at a standard fee. Boom years followed for the Fort Worth Stock Yards Company after the arrival of Armour and Swift. Immigrants came from Central Europe to work in the plants and settled in a community that stockyard officials incorporated in 1902 under the name North Fort Worth. The first decade of the twentieth century saw great growth in livestock-related industries in Fort Worth-grain elevators, livestock-pharmaceutical companies, and other meatpackers. The Fort Worth Stock Yards Company constituted the hub around which everything else revolved. The reorganized company spent $125,000 for a two-story Spanish-style exchange building and constructed brick-floored pens with a capacity of 24,500 animals. By 1905 the Fort Worth market had grown to fifth in the nation. In 1906 the calf market at Fort Worth ranked second only to Chicago. Because of rapid growth, the yards kept expanding. In March 1908, when a new $175,000 coliseum for the fat-stock show opened, the company hosted the first cutting-horse contest ever held indoors under electric lights. Population in Fort Worth tripled during the first decade after Armour and

Tsha Handbook → · 4.8 mi away

Things to Do in Haltom City

quirky 19.4 mi away
Chewbacca's Grave — May the 4th

May the 4th be with you — and with the Wookiee. Peter Mayhew the seven-foot-three British actor who brought Chewbacca to life in every Star Wars film from 1977…

food 4.4 mi away
Joe T. Garcia's

Joe T opened his little family restaurant behind the packing plant in the Fort Worth Stockyards in 1935. There was no menu. His wife Jessie served whatever she…

historical 4.5 mi away
Fort Worth Stockyards

Daily cattle drives down the street. Honky-tonks and rodeos in the old West.

historical 4.6 mi away
Billy Bob's Texas

Billy Bob's opened in 1981 in an old cattle barn in the Fort Worth Stockyards and at one hundred twenty-seven thousand square feet it is the largest honky-tonk…

historical 17.4 mi away
WWII Marine Glider Base at Eagle Mountain

In 1942 the United States Marines bought 2931 acres of ranchland on Eagle Mountain Lake for a purpose that sounds almost unbelievable now — training pilots to…

quirky 17.4 mi away
The Azle Earthquake Swarm

Starting in November 2013 the ground beneath Azle started shaking and it did not stop for 84 days. Twenty-seven earthquakes rattled windows cracked foundations…

quirky 19.4 mi away
Chewbacca's Grave

The seven-foot-three British actor who played Chewbacca in every Star Wars film from 1977 to The Force Awakens is buried right here at Azleland Memorial Park.…

spooky 10.2 mi away
Lake Worth Monster

In 1969 dozens of witnesses reported a half-man half-goat creature prowling the shores of Lake Worth. Police investigated. The monster was never caught.

Everything Near Haltom City

1448 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

  • The Jeweler Who Named a Town

    The town spreading out around you carries the name of a Fort Worth jeweler who never really lived here. George Washington Haltom was born in an Arkansas log house in 1872, decided as a boy picking cotton that he would…

  • When This Was the County Seat (Before the Whiskey)

    Tucked inside today's Haltom City is the old community of Birdville, named for Texas Ranger captain Jonathan Bird, and in 1850 it won the vote to become Tarrant County's very first seat of government. For a few years it…

  • The First Courthouse Site and the Pioneer Graves

    Near 6108 Broadway Avenue stands a marker noting the spot where Tarrant County's first courthouse once stood in Birdville, back when this ground governed the whole county. A short walk away is Birdville Cemetery, the…

  • From the Haltom Buffaloes to a Super Bowl Ring

    The Haltom High School Buffaloes have sent players to the pros, and the most decorated of them is offensive lineman Halapoulivaati Vaitai, who suited up here in the orange and black alongside his two younger twin…

  • Where Worn-Out Jet Brakes Get a Second Life

    Behind an unassuming industrial wall in Haltom City is one of the more specialized engineering shops in North Texas: a 110,000-square-foot Collins Aerospace facility that opened around 2020 as a hub for aircraft wheel…

  • Haltom City, TX

    Nestled in the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Haltom City is an inner suburb of Fort Worth with a unique geographic advantage. Just six miles from downtown Fort Worth, 30 miles from the American Airlines…

  • G.W. Haltom's Picture Palace on Belknap · 0.3 mi

    At 5601 East Belknap Street sits the Haltom Theater, the one landmark the town's namesake actually built here himself. George W. Haltom spent about thirty-five thousand dollars to put up the 716-seat single-screen movie…

  • The Stage Manager Who Never Left · 0.3 mi

    If you pass the old Haltom Theater on East Belknap after dark, the people who run it will tell you it isn't quite empty. The legend attached to the restored 1940s movie house holds that it's haunted by J.P. Harrison,…

  • Belknap's Little Saigon · 0.3 mi

    Drive the East Belknap corridor through Haltom City and the storefronts tell a quieter chapter of Texas history. Beginning in the late 1970s, after the end of the Vietnam War, Southeast Asian refugees resettled across…

  • The Rise of Little Saigon · 0.6 mi

    As you drive down Belknap Street, you’re witnessing a story of urban transformation. In the 1970s and ‘80s, this was a commercial strip in decline, full of aging buildings and struggling businesses. But a new community…

  • Engineered at the Crossroads · 0.6 mi

    Haltom City is a textbook example of a city engineered by its highways. Its very existence is owed to the civil engineering that created the modern commuter suburb. It started with two key arteries. The Denton Highway,…

  • Haltom City, TX · 0.6 mi

    Haltom City is surrounded by major highways, including Highway 26, Highway 377, SH 121 (NE 28th St), SH 183, and Interstate 820. These highways provide convenient access to the surrounding areas, including downtown Fort…

Show all 200 nearby places
  • The Haltom Theatre · 0.6 mi

    If you look for it at Belknap and Denton Highway, you can still see a lit piece of Haltom City's past: the Haltom Theater. G. W. Haltom built it for thirty-five thousand dollars and opened the doors at six o'clock on…

  • St. Luke United Methodist Church · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Haltom City, and right here is the site of St. Luke United Methodist Church. It began in 1928 as Birdville Methodist Church, with just seventeen members. For years, services were sporadic, but by…

  • Garage Bands at the Roller Rink · 0.9 mi

    Haltom City's loudest contribution to Texas music started a block from the high school, at the Holiday Roller Skating Rink at 2920 Carson Street. Beginning in May 1964, the local Jaycees and KFJZ disc jockey Mark…

  • West Fork Baptist Association · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Haltom City, right where Texas Baptists were organizing back in the 1850s. On October 12th, 1855, delegates from twelve frontier churches gathered at Birdville. Their mission? To form the West…

  • Pioneer Birdville Schools · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Haltom City, and right here is the site of Birdville Hill. This spot was the heart of Tarrant County for a few years, serving as its first county seat from 1851 to 1856. But it's also where…

  • Birdville Baptist Church · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Birdville Baptist Church. This congregation got its start way back in 1853, organized by five founding members. It hit a bit of a rough patch, lapsing for a few years, but ten dedicated…

  • Judge Benjamin Franklin Barkley · 1.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Haltom City, past the site where Judge Benjamin Franklin Barkley made his stand. A physician and lawyer, Barkley was a Republican leader who spoke out against slavery and secession, even treating…

  • Birdville, Site of Tarrany County's First Courthouse · 1.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Birdville, Tarrant County's very first county seat! Back in 1849, this spot was chosen, with 80 acres set aside for public use. A courthouse foundation was even laid here. But things got…

  • Archibald Franklin Leonard · 1.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Archibald Franklin Leonard. A native of Pennsylvania, Archibald Franklin Leonard (1816-1876) moved to Missouri in the 1830s where he married Mary Ann Foster (1822-1904) in 1839. In 1845, along with…

  • Birdville Cemetery · 1.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Birdville Cemetery, the final resting place for generations of Tarrant County pioneers. Look for the oldest marked grave here: Wiley Wilda Potts, born in <say-as interpret-as="date"…

  • Birdville Church of Christ · 1.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Birdville Church of Christ in Haltom City. It all started on February 26, 1852, when twelve charter members held the first service, just after Birdville became the Tarrant County…

  • Harper's Rest Cemetery · 1.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Harper's Rest Cemetery, a final resting place with a story that begins with a stranger's loss. In 1894, Henry Jackson Harper and his family settled here. Their peaceful farm became a place of…

  • New Trinity Cemetery · 1.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Haltom City, and right here is the New Trinity Cemetery. When Rev. Greene Fretwell, a former slave, died in 1886, there was no burial ground for Black residents in this part of Tarrant County. His…

  • Ransom, Dr. Riley Andrew · 1.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're passing through Haltom City, but the story of Dr. Riley Andrew Ransom takes us back to Fort Worth. Born in Kentucky, he studied medicine and then came to Gainesville, Texas, in the early 1900s. There, he opened…

  • Country Breakfast in a Room Full of Lucy · 1.3 mi

    For a plate of food that tastes like a Texas grandmother's kitchen, locals point to the Bluebonnet Cafe at 2223-A Haltom Road. The family-owned diner opened in July 1994 and has spent three decades serving the kind of…

  • The Cheneys Built the Garden of Eden · 1.5 mi

    Straddling the line between Fort Worth and Haltom City, in a bend of the Trinity River, the Cheney family had farmed this land since arriving from Kentucky and Tennessee in the 1830s. After emancipation, Major Cheney,…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Carter-Riverside (Fort Worth) · 2.1 mi

    Carter-Riverside (Fort Worth, TX) placed on the 4A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Sergio Casillas (0.583 avg).

  • Amon Carter Riverside High School and Riverside I.S.D. · 2.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fort Worth's Riverside neighborhood, the site of a community school system that started way back in 1876. <break time="400ms"/> It began as a one-room schoolhouse built by Dr. Eagle, a retired…

  • Red Ball Gas House Explosion · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Tarrant County, not far from where a routine gas delivery turned into a terrifying inferno. On the evening of July 31, 1968, a tanker truck was refilling a storage tank at the Red Ball Gas House…

  • Mosier Valley, TX · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Mosier Valley was established in the 1870s on the north bank of the Trinity River just south of the sites of Hurst, Euless, and Bedford in Tarrant County. It was founded by Robert and Dilsie Johnson and ten other…

  • Niles City, TX · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Niles City, three miles north of the business center of Fort Worth in central Tarrant County, was incorporated in February 1911. The town was called "the richest little city in the state of Texas" because of the high…

  • Barkley, Benjamin Franklin · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Tarrant County, near what used to be Birdville, the original county seat. Right here, in the years after the Civil War, Dr. Benjamin Franklin Barkley was a lightning rod for controversy. A…

  • Fourteenth Texas Cavalry · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, and right here in what was Tarrant County, a cavalry regiment was born for the Confederacy. In the fall of 1861, Middleton Tate Johnson raised his "Mounted Volunteers." These men,…

  • Hicks Field · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Fort Worth, and right here is the site of Hicks Field. Back in 1916, this was Taliaferro Field, a crucial training ground for Canadian pilots in World War I. It was the largest aerial gunnery school…

  • Parker, Isaac · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Tarrant County, and right here is where Isaac Parker lived near Birdville. Parker was a key figure in early Texas, serving in Congress and the first four legislatures. But he's perhaps most…

  • Parker, Isaac Duke · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Tarrant County, near Birdville, where Isaac Duke Parker lived most of his life. His family has deep Texas roots, tied to the very frontier. In 1836, his grandfather was killed and his cousin,…

  • Griffin, William Henry · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Tarrant County, Texas, a place that saw action during the Civil War. William Henry Griffin, a West Point graduate and seasoned engineer, settled here in 1858. When war broke out, he tried to raise…

  • Smith, William Ruthven · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Tarrant County, near where Camp Bowie once stood. Right here, in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1918</say-as>, this area was a hub for the Thirty-sixth Infantry Division, nicknamed the…

  • Birdville, TX · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Birdville, in central Tarrant County, the first settlement in the county. It was established in 1841 and named for Capt. Jonathan Bird. Birdville was a functioning settlement by 1848, and its earliest residents were…

  • Peden, TX · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Peden was on the western shore of Eagle Mountain Lake, south of Swift Branch, two miles north of Azle, and twenty miles northwest of Fort Worth in northwestern Tarrant County. Before Eagle Mountain Lake was constructed,…

  • Smithfield, TX · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Smithfield, in north central Tarrant County, was probably established before 1870 and was originally called Zion. A post office opened there in 1878. In 1887 the St. Louis and Southwestern Railway built through the area…

  • Goree, Edwin Sue · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, and right here, in what was once Thorp Springs, began the career of Edwin Sue Goree. Born in 1884, Goree dedicated her life to bringing books to Texans. From 1931 to 1940, she…

  • Johnson Creek (Tarrant County) · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Tarrant County right now, near the city of Arlington, and the creek you might cross is Johnson Creek. It was probably named for Middleton Tate Johnson, a settler who arrived in the early 1840s.…

  • Middleton, Alfred K. · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Tarrant County, near where Johnson's Station used to be. This was home to Dr. Alfred K. Middleton, a physician who arrived in Texas back in 1851. He practiced medicine and farmed here, even…

  • Tarrant County College · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Tarrant County right now, and you're surrounded by a massive educational institution. Back in 1965, voters here decided to form their own junior college district. The first campus, the South…

  • Maddox, Thomas Benton · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Tarrant County, near what was once Birdville. Right here lived Thomas Benton Maddox, a farmer who, after moving to Texas, served in the Twenty-third Texas Legislature. He was a farmer, a…

  • Jellico, TX · 2.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Jellico was near the intersection of Farm roads 1709 and 1938, in the area of present Southlake in northeast Tarrant County. Robert Emmett Wilson, founder of the settlement, purchased property in the W. R. Eaves survey…

  • Mount Olivet Cemetery · 2.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising past Mount Olivet Cemetery in Fort Worth, a place with a story as big as its 130 acres. Founded in 1907 by Flavious and Johnnie McPeak, it was inspired by a cemetery they saw in Nashville. This wasn't…

  • Riverside Methodist Church · 2.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Riverside United Methodist Church in Fort Worth. Its story starts way back in March 1888, with just ten people and a traveling preacher holding Sunday School in an abandoned saloon. They…

  • Tim Cole · 2.5 mi · Historical Marker

    Timothy Brian Cole, born in Brenham in 1960, served in the U.S. Army and attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock. While there, Cole was accused of assaulting a fellow student. In September 1986, a jury convicted him…

  • Robert David Law · 2.5 mi · Historical Marker

    _Specialist Four, United States Army_ Robert David Law was born on September 15, 1944, to Robert M. and Martha E. (Morris) Law in Fort Worth. He attended Fort Worth Technical High School, graduating in 1964, and was a…

  • The Iron Horse Returns · 2.6 mi

    Richland Hills was built around the automobile, but for a while it had something most Fort Worth suburbs never got — its own commuter rail platform. The Trinity Railway Express station here opened on September 16, 2000,…

  • The Man Named Rich · 2.6 mi

    Imagine it is 1950. Where you are now was open Tarrant County ground, eight miles northeast of downtown Fort Worth. What put houses on it was work. The defense plants around Fort Worth had boomed through the Second…

  • The Farmer Behind Rufe Snow Drive · 2.7 mi

    If you've driven Rufe Snow Drive, you've used a road named for a man who spent his life serving this rural community long before it was a city. Rufus Snow, who lived from 1867 to 1957, was a local farmer who also gave…

  • A Golf Course Built Around the Railroad That Made the Town · 2.9 mi

    Iron Horse Golf Course leans hard into the one thing that built this whole community: the train. Opened in 1988 to a Dick Phelps design and owned by the City of North Richland Hills, the course at 6200 Skylark Circle…

  • Named for Fossils, Remembered for a Flood · 2.9 mi

    The creek slipping through the east side of Haltom City wears its origin story in its name. Big Fossil Creek was christened by an early settler who found fossils along its banks, the petrified leftovers of an ancient…

  • The Day Evel Knievel Jumped Eleven Mack Trucks Here · 3.3 mi

    Where there are now houses and an elementary school, there used to be one of the loudest places in North Texas. Green Valley Raceway opened in 1960 on Bill McClure's old dairy farm in Smithfield, a combined road course…

  • The Dairy Farm That Became a City of Seventy Thousand · 3.3 mi

    The streets and strip centers around you sit on what was, within living memory, open dairy pasture. This corner of northeastern Tarrant County traces back to the Peters Colony, where empresario W.S. Peters agreed to…

  • Zion, the Railroad, and the Birth of Smithfield · 3.3 mi

    The Smithfield part of North Richland Hills started life under a different name: Zion, a small farming settlement here before 1870. The thing that made it a town was iron. When the St. Louis and Southwestern Railway,…

  • The Pioneer Cemetery That Outlived Its Town · 3.3 mi

    At 6704 Smithfield Road sits the quiet ground that anchors the whole Smithfield story. Eli Smith, the Missouri-born farmer for whose family the town was named, came to Texas around 1859 and in the early 1870s gave part…

  • Texas's First City-Owned Water Park · 3.3 mi

    When NRH2O opened on Boulevard 26 in 1995, North Richland Hills did something no other Texas city had done: it built and ran its own water park. It started modestly, with three body slides, a river, and a wading pool,…

  • Bird's Fort: The Outpost That Named a County · 3.3 mi

    The name stamped on Birdville, on Bird's Fort, and ultimately on this whole stretch of Tarrant County belonged to one frontier soldier. In 1841, following the Battle of Village Creek, Major Jonathan Bird built a…

  • How a Texas City Manufactures the Ocean on Boulevard 26 · 3.3 mi

    The waves rolling across NRH2Ocean at NRH2O Family Water Park are not nature's work, they are a controlled blast of compressed air. The wave pool here covers about 12,000 square feet and holds roughly 225,000 gallons,…

  • WBAP-TV - Channel 5 · 3.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of WBAP-TV, the fifth television station to sign on in Texas! Founded by Fort Worth Star-Telegram publisher Amon G. Carter, its very first program was a public appearance by President Harry…

  • Richland High School — State Softball 2026 · 3.8 mi

    Richland High School in North Richland Hills, Texas qualified for the 2026 UIL state softball championships, reaching the state tournament (final four) in Class four A, Division One.

  • Parker Cemetery · 3.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Parker Cemetery in Hurst. This isn't just any graveyard; it's tied to one of the most famous stories in Texas history. The land for this cemetery was donated in <say-as interpret-as="date"…

  • Sanderson, William Alfred · 3.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the former stomping grounds of William Alfred Sanderson. Born in England in 1819, Sanderson arrived in Texas in 1841, eventually settling in Tarrant County in 1847. He became a successful farmer and…

  • Parker, I.D., Public Cemetery and Homestead · 3.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the I.D. Parker Homestead and Cemetery, a symbol of a prominent pioneer family right here in Hurst. Isaac Duke Parker arrived in 1853, settling down with his family. During the Civil War,…

  • Ayres Cemetery · 3.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Ayres Cemetery, a quiet resting place established by one of Tarrant County's earliest officials. In 1861, Benjamin Patton Ayres and his wife Emily bought a large farm here and set aside two acres…

  • Site of Ray-Manship Cemetery · 3.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the former site of the Ray-Manship Cemetery. It held twelve known burials and many unmarked graves of early Tarrant County settlers. The earliest known burial was Sarah Clark in 1883, and William Ray…

  • Meadowbrook Methodist Church · 3.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fort Worth, heading east. Right here, you're passing the site of Meadowbrook United Methodist Church. Its story starts way back in 1911, with two small mission congregations: Sycamore Heights and…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Diamond Hill-Jarvis (Fort Worth) · 4.0 mi

    Diamond Hill-Jarvis (Fort Worth, TX) placed on the 4A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Diego Basurto (0.533 avg, 1 HR); Devin Franco (0.475 avg).

  • The Name That Traveled From a Tennessee River · 4.1 mi

    The town you're rolling through carries a name that took a long road to get here. Settlers brought Watauga west from the Cherokee country of East Tennessee, where the Watauga River runs over the rocky rapids of Sycamore…

  • The Great Watauga Train Wreck · 4.1 mi

    Near where the tracks cross Big Fossil Creek, Watauga lived through a night the whole town never forgot. Around 1917, a Katy freight train had stopped on the line close to the Big Fossil Creek bridge. Dispatchers over…

  • Tennessee Families on the Prairie Springs · 4.1 mi

    Long before subdivisions and the U.S. 377 traffic, this corner of northern Tarrant County drew families who'd come west chasing game, fertile fields, and clear spring water. Tradition places the first Tennessee settlers…

  • The Depot That Made the Town, Then Left It · 4.1 mi

    Watauga only became a recognizable community because the railroad decided to come through. When the Texas and Pacific Railway pushed its tracks across this stretch of prairie in 1881 on the run toward Fort Worth, the…

  • The Seventy-Year Wait · 4.1 mi

    The railroad tracks that run through Watauga tell a strange story of delayed gratification. When the Texas and Pacific Railway laid this line in 1881, it was a huge event. A stop was established, a name was given, and…

  • The Making of a Highway Town · 4.1 mi

    The main commercial spine of Watauga is U.S. Highway 377, better known around here as Denton Highway, and it's the reason this city looks the way it does. Watauga sat on the Texas and Pacific tracks from 1881 and barely…

  • Engineering a Creek That Floods a Town · 4.1 mi

    The same Big Fossil Creek that staged Watauga's famous train wreck is also the town's biggest engineering problem, and one of the more unusual flood-control case studies in North Texas. Big Fossil Creek is a tributary…

  • From 65 People to a City in One Generation · 4.1 mi

    Watauga spent the first half of the 20th century nearly empty, just 65 residents in the mid-1930s, a farming dot the railroad had abandoned. Then Fort Worth went to war. The defense plants that ringed the city in and…

  • Watauga, TX · 4.1 mi

    Watauga sits on land that tells a silent story. This part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is gently rolling prairie, a landscape sculpted over millennia by the West Fork of the Trinity River and its tributaries. The…

  • Tarrant, General Edward H. · 4.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Tarrant County, named for a man who fought his way across America. Edward H. Tarrant started his military career way back in 1814, fighting under Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. He…

  • Willow Springs: The Congregation Older Than the Town · 4.2 mi

    The oldest institution tied to Watauga isn't in Watauga at all anymore. It's the Willow Springs congregation, gathered by settler families in this area in the years around the Civil War and formally reorganized in 1867…

  • Garvey-Veihl House · 4.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Garvey-Veihl House, a grand dame of Fort Worth's past. In 1876, this land was deeded to Mary and Isaac Foster, who moved here from Kentucky in 1882 with their daughter Lucy and her husband,…

  • Pioneer's Rest Cemetery · 4.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Pioneer's Rest Cemetery, Fort Worth's oldest burial ground, started in the summer of 1850. It began with the graves of two children, Sophie and Willis Arnold, whose father Major Ripley Arnold…

  • Watauga Presbyterian Church · 4.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Watauga Presbyterian Church, though you won't see much here today. This congregation started way back in the 1850s as the Willow Springs Cumberland Presbyterian Church. It was reorganized…

  • The Five-Star Restaurant Inside a Gas Station · 4.3 mi

    For two decades the unlikeliest fine-dining room in Texas sat inside a working Conoco at 5901 Watauga Road. Chef Point Cafe opened in 2003, the project of chef Franson Nwaeze, who'd come to America from Nigeria meaning…

  • I.M. Terrell High School · 4.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fort Worth, passing the site of I.M. Terrell High School. This story starts way back in 1882, when Fort Worth opened its very first free public school for Black students. It was called the East…

  • Greater Saint James Baptist Church · 4.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Greater Saint James Baptist Church in Fort Worth. It all started back in 1895, when Reverend J. Francis Robinson and members of Mt. Gilead Baptist Church founded this congregation. They held…

  • Joe T. Garcia's · 4.4 mi · Things to Do

    Joe T opened his little family restaurant behind the packing plant in the Fort Worth Stockyards in 1935. There was no menu. His wife Jessie served whatever she…

  • Niles City · 4.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Niles City, once known as the 'Richest Little Town in the World'! Founded in 1911, this booming community was built on massive meatpacking firms, grain elevators, and even a petroleum…

  • Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church · 4.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church in Fort Worth, a stunning example of African American architecture. This Tudor Gothic Revival sanctuary, built between 1912 and 1914, was designed by William Sidney…

  • Armour & Company · 4.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past where Armour & Company set up shop in Fort Worth back in 1902. Local leaders convinced the national meatpacking giant to build here, offering land and incentives. This plant became a huge part of the…

  • Swift & Company · 4.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of a major industrial player that helped shape Fort Worth. Swift & Company, already a giant in meatpacking by the 1880s, opened this plant in 1903 to be closer to Texas's massive cattle…

  • The City Hall Built by Hand for $1,200 · 4.4 mi

    When Watauga incorporated in 1958 it had almost nothing a city is supposed to have, no real budget, no staff, and certainly no money for a fire truck or a municipal building. So the new town did the only thing it could:…

  • Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church · 4.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest and largest A.M.E. church in Fort Worth. It all started around 1870, organized by Reverend Moody and five local settlers. They met in homes…

  • Fort Worth Belt Railway · 4.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Fort Worth Belt Railway. Beginning in 1904, the Belt Railway serviced the Fort Worth Stock Yards. The arrival of the railroad in Fort Worth in 1876 moved the cow town from a regional economic player…

  • Fort Worth Stock Yards Company · 4.5 mi · Historical Marker

    The Fort Worth Stock Yards Company was created in 1893, when Boston capitalist Greenlief W. Simpson led a group of investors in purchasing the Fort Worth Union Stock Yards. Under Simpson's leadership, the Company earned…

  • The Last Daily Cattle Drive in America · 4.5 mi

    Twice a day, a dozen Texas Longhorns are driven down Exchange Avenue by mounted drovers in period dress. It is the only daily cattle drive on a public street anywhere in the world. The tradition started in 1999 as a way…

  • Fort Worth Stockyards · 4.5 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Howdy, partner! You're rollin' up on a place that helped earn Fort Worth its nickname: Cowtown. The Stockyards are more than just a tourist spot; they're where the Wild West lived and breathed. From 1866, cattlemen…

  • Fort Worth Stockyards · 4.5 mi · Things to Do

    Daily cattle drives down the street. Honky-tonks and rodeos in the old West.

  • Mule Alley - From Livestock Pens to Luxury · 4.5 mi

    Mule Alley stretches along Marine Creek at the edge of the Stockyards, and for decades it was exactly what the name suggests: rows of brick-and-timber barns where mules and horses were penned before auction. The…

  • TSTA Building · 4.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the TSTA Building in Fort Worth, a place that housed the Texas State Teachers Association for nearly twenty years. Designed by architect Wiley G. Clarkson and completed in 1930, this structure…

  • Isham Cemetery · 4.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Isham Cemetery, a resting place founded by a Georgia preacher named W. Marion Isham. He and his family arrived in Tarrant County around 1870, and Isham immediately donated an acre for a community…

  • Quanah Parker · 4.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Quanah Parker. Comanche chief Quanah Parker was a son of two cultures. He was born about 1845 along Elk Creek, Indian Territory (Oklahoma). His Anglo mother was Cynthia Ann Parker, taken captive in a…

  • Billy Bob's Texas · 4.6 mi · Things to Do

    Billy Bob's opened in 1981 in an old cattle barn in the Fort Worth Stockyards and at one hundred twenty-seven thousand square feet it is the largest honky-tonk…

  • Cowtown Coliseum - First Indoor Rodeo in History · 4.6 mi

    The Cowtown Coliseum hosted the world's first indoor rodeo in 1918, and it has been holding rodeos almost continuously ever since. Built in 1908, this was one of the largest indoor arenas in the Southwest. It was…

  • The Judas Goat Tunnel Under the Stockyards · 4.6 mi

    Walk East Exchange Avenue in the Stockyards and you're crossing over a tunnel built to move livestock, not people. Greenleif Simpson bought the Union Stockyards in 1893 for $133,333 and renamed it the Fort Worth…

  • Billy Bob's Texas - World's Largest Honky-Tonk · 4.6 mi · Historical Marker

    Billy Bob's Texas takes up 127,000 square feet of the Fort Worth Stockyards, making it the largest honky-tonk on earth, and it has an indoor rodeo arena to prove the point. The building started life in 1910 as an…

  • Fort Worth Stockyards Horse and Mule Barns · 4.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the historic Fort Worth Stockyards Horse and Mule Barns. On opening day of a major show in 1911, a massive fire destroyed the original wooden barns. But they rebuilt immediately with fireproof…

  • Coliseum · 4.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Fort Worth Coliseum, built in 1907-08. Funded by packing companies and the Stock Yards Company, it became the permanent home for the Fat Stock Show for 34 years. This place is also…

  • Fort Worth Livestock Exchange · 4.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fort Worth, the heart of a legendary cattle market. Back in the late 1860s, this was a crucial stop on the cattle trails. By the early 1900s, this very building, erected in 1902, housed the…

  • Early Site of Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show · 4.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the historic heart of Fort Worth's legendary livestock industry. Back in the 1870s, this town became a vital hub for cattle drives heading north. By 1896, the first major livestock show was held…

  • Fort Worth Stockyards Hog and Sheep Markets · 4.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the historic Fort Worth Stockyards, a place that became a national hub for livestock. In 1903, the stockyards launched a big push to get Texans raising more hogs, offering prizes and even a youth Pig…

  • Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge No. 2144 · 4.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fort Worth, and right here is a reminder of a vital part of the city's Black community over a century ago. Organized in 1880, the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge Number 2144, was more…

  • Site of the First Masonic Hall in Fort Worth · 4.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Fort Worth's very first Masonic Hall! Organized in 1854, the Masons built this red-brick lodge in 1857. More than just a meeting place, they ran a school on the ground floor, and a famous…

  • Woody-Kutch Livestock Commission Company · 4.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the historic Fort Worth Stockyards, a place that was once called the 'Wall Street of the West.' In 1920, brothers-in-law Joseph Woody and Jefferson Kutch were already working here. By 1923, they…

  • Bank One Tower Tornado · 4.7 mi · Local Knowledge

    F3 tornado climbed the 35-story Bank One Tower on March 28, 2000, blowing out nearly every pane of glass above the third floor. Building sat empty for almost five years before being converted to luxury residential.

  • Fort Worth Stockyards · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    This is where the Chisholm Trail ended and the cattle industry began its transformation from open range to big business. After the Civil War, millions of longhorn cattle were driven north through Fort Worth on their way…

  • North Richland Hills, TX · 4.7 mi

    North Richland Hills, or NRH, has a rich history that began with W.S. Peters' agreement to bring 600 families into the area within three years as part of a land grant. Families started arriving in the summer of 1848.…

  • Eastern Cattle Trail · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past a spot that was once a crucial highway for Texas's booming cattle industry. Look to your right, where Commerce Street now lies, that was once Rusk Street, and the path of the Eastern Cattle Trail.…

  • Daggett, Ephraim Merrill · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fort Worth, a city Ephraim Merrill Daggett is called "The Father of Fort Worth" for good reason. He arrived in 1854, establishing businesses and buying land. Daggett's influence helped make Fort…

  • Santa Fe Depot · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Fort Worth, and right here is the historic Santa Fe Depot, built back in 1899. This Beaux Arts beauty, with its native stone, once boasted painted glass windows showing the evolution of travel,…

  • The Ghost Town Inside the Suburb · 4.7 mi

    As you travel through the tidy neighborhoods of North Richland Hills, you're driving through what's left of another town. Before any of this there was Smithfield, and before that it was called Zion, after the Methodist…

  • The Highway That Sculpted a Suburb · 4.7 mi

    As you drive Interstate 820 through North Richland Hills, you're on a road that drew the city around it rather than the other way around. The federal Bureau of Public Roads laid out I-820 in October of 1959 as a…

  • Fort Worth Union Depot (1900–2002) · 4.7 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    This spot was once a crucial portal, connecting Fort Worth to the entire country by rail. Built around 1900 by the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad, this depot served passengers for over a century. It got a major…

  • Paddock Viaduct · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Paddock Viaduct in Fort Worth. Before this span, folks crossed the Trinity River using low-water crossings or ferries. A suspension bridge built in the 1890s couldn't keep up with the growing…

  • Fort Worth Stock Yards Exchange · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the iconic gateway to the Fort Worth Stock Yards, completed way back in 1910. Built by the Topeka Bridge & Land Company for the Stock Yards Company, this massive concrete structure was a marvel for…

  • Winfield Garage · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Winfield Garage in Fort Worth. Opened in April 1920, it was designed to be the largest and most modern garage in Texas, accommodating 325 vehicles. This massive facility even hosted…

  • Saunders, Thomas B., Family · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the home of a Texas cattle dynasty. Since the 1850s, members of the Saunders family have been deeply involved in the state's cattle industry. Thomas B. Saunders, II, became the first cattle dealer at…

  • The Water Park That Built a City's Pride · 4.7 mi

    You might drive by the NRH2O Family Water Park and see just a fun summer spot, but it represents a major turning point in this city’s history. For decades, North Richland Hills wrestled with its identity as a 'bedroom…

  • Tarrant County Courthouse · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Tarrant County Courthouse in Fort Worth. Built between 1893 and 1895, this impressive red Texas granite building was designed in the Spanish Renaissance Revival style. It looks a lot like the…

  • Administration Building · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the historic Administration Building of Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth. This place has seen some history! It was built in 1902 for old Polytechnic College, which started way back in 1890 as…

  • Thannisch Block Building · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Thannisch Block Building in Fort Worth. Colonel Thomas Marion Thannisch, an early developer, built the eastern part of this structure in 1906 to serve the Stockyards community. It was designed as…

  • Land Title Building · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Land Title Building in Fort Worth, a structure that was architecturally important when it was built in 1889. Designed by Haggart and Sanguinet, it featured the first known stone carving in Fort…

  • Fort Worth Library · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fort Worth, and right here is where the city's first public library opened its doors in 1901. It all started when a local woman asked Andrew Carnegie for funds, famously calling it 'the price of a…

  • The 30-Vote Victory That Created a City · 4.7 mi

    The existence of North Richland Hills as a city comes down to one dairy farm and one rejection. In 1952 Clarence Jones began subdividing his 268-acre dairy farm out here, back when this was open country northeast of…

  • Fort Worth, TX · 4.7 mi · Local history

    Fort Worth's identity is deeply intertwined with its history as a vital hub for the cattle industry, a tradition that began in the 19th century. Positioned on the edge of the vast Texas prairie, the city became a…

  • Billy Bob's Texas · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Billed as the "World's Largest Honky-Tonk" and located in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards district, Billy Bob's Texas, which comprises a total interior space of 100,000 square feet, along with twenty acres for…

  • Fort Worth Stockyards · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    The Fort Worth Stock Yards were officially incorporated on March 23, 1893, and the corporation was dissolved on May 31, 1944, but those who purchased it at the later date continued operations under the same name until…

  • Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, home to one of the oldest continuous running livestock shows in the country! It all started way back in 1896, right on the banks of Marine Creek. The very first show had no buildings,…

  • WBAP · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, and right here is the birthplace of a Texas legend: WBAP radio. On May 2nd, 1922, this station went live, thanks to Amon G. Carter, owner of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Herbert…

  • Wills, James Robert · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, and right here, you're passing through the birthplace of a Texas legend. Bob Wills, the King of Western Swing, was born near Kosse in Limestone County back in 1905. He learned fiddle…

  • Fort Worth, TX · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, a city that literally began with settlers moving into an abandoned U.S. Army post right here in 1853. They called themselves 'Fort Town' and were fewer than a hundred souls. John Peter…

  • Lucas, Barbara Inez Barnes [Tad] · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Barbara Inez (Tad) Lucas, rodeo champion, was born on September 1, 1902, at Cody, Nebraska, one of twenty-four children of Lorenzo White Barnes. Her mother, Hannah Garthside Barnes, was Lorenzo's second wife. Tad could…

  • Hidden Beneath the Jail: the Tunnel and the 1913 Lynch Mob · 4.8 mi

    Beneath the old county jail on Belknap Street, in May 1913, deputies hid a shackled prisoner named Tom Lee Young in a tunnel, wrapped in darkness while a lynch mob tore through the jail above searching for him. Young, a…

  • Fort Worth "Where the West Begins" · 4.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Fort Worth, the city that proudly calls itself 'Where the West Begins.' It all started back on June 6, 1849, as a U.S. Army frontier post named Camp Worth. Major Ripley Arnold founded it, naming…

  • Allen, Frances Daisy Emery · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, maybe near Fort Worth, and you're passing the site of a major medical first. Right here, in 1897, Frances Daisy Emery became the very first woman to graduate from medical school in…

  • Arnold, Ripley Allen · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth right now, a city that owes its existence to a tough Army officer named Ripley Allen Arnold. In the summer of 1849, Arnold led his dragoons to the confluence of the Trinity River's West…

  • Atz, John Jacob · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, a city that once boasted the greatest manager in Texas League history: John Jacob 'Jake' Atz. He arrived in 1914, leading the Fort Worth Cats. Legend has it Jake changed his name from…

  • Baird, Ninia Lilla [Ninnie] · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Right here in Fort Worth, you're passing the birthplace of a Texas legend: Mrs. Baird's Bakeries. It all started with Ninnie Baird, a woman who turned hardship into a sweet success story. After her husband fell ill,…

  • Baird, Roland Winford, Sr. · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, the birthplace of a Texas-sized baking empire. It all started in 1908, right here, when Roland Baird's mother began baking bread for neighbors. Young Roland, standing on a box, helped…

  • Beneke, Gordon Lee [Tex] · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, the birthplace of Gordon Lee Beneke, better known to the world as Tex Beneke. Born in 1914, this talented saxophonist and vocalist got his nickname from the legendary Glenn Miller…

  • Bowman, Euday Louis · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, the birthplace of Euday Louis Bowman, composer of the unforgettable "Twelfth Street Rag." Born in 1886, Bowman learned piano from his sister and played in local joints, even working as…

  • Boyce, Albert Gallatin · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, a city with a reputation for grit and a history of wild tales. Right here, in the lobby of the Metropolitan Hotel, a dramatic end unfolded for Albert Gallatin Boyce, the general…

  • Boyce-Sneed Feud · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, and right here, you're passing through the heart of a wild story that played out over a century ago. It all started in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1911</say-as> when John…

  • Brower, Cecil Lee · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, a city that became the cradle for a whole new sound in Texas music: western swing. Right here, Cecil Lee Brower, born in Bellevue back in 1914, took violin lessons meant for classical…

  • Bruton, Turner Stephen · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, a city that nurtured a true Texas music legend: Stephen Bruton. Born in Delaware, he landed here as a boy, growing up surrounded by music in his father's record store. He wasn't just…

  • Burchill, Kate Belle Murray · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, and right here is where a woman named Kate Belle Burchill made her mark. Arriving in Texas in 1874, she founded a private school that, by 1876, became the very first free public school…

  • Burnett, Mary Couts · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, and right here is the legacy of Mary Couts Burnett. Around 1892, she married wealthy rancher Samuel Burk Burnett. Their marriage was famously troubled, with Mary eventually believing…

  • Byers, Chester Allen Arthur · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, a city that was home to one of the greatest trick ropers the world has ever known: Chester Allen Arthur Byers, or Chet as he was known. Born in Illinois in 1892, Byers learned his…

  • Byrne, James J. · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Fort Worth, a city that owes some of its early development to James J. Byrne. This Irish-born officer rose through the ranks during the Civil War, fighting in Louisiana and earning brevets to…

  • Carswell, Horace S., Jr. · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, the hometown of Major Horace S. Carswell, Jr. He was a decorated pilot in World War II, known for his bravery in combat. On October 26, 1944, flying a B-24 bomber over the South China…

  • Carter, Amon G., Sr. · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, a city that owes a massive debt to Amon G. Carter, Sr. Born just a bit west in Crafton, Carter arrived in Fort Worth in 1905 and quickly made his mark. He bought the Fort Worth Star…

  • Cellar · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Texas, and you might be passing near a place that was truly one of a kind: The Cellar. Starting around 1958, this unique club popped up in cities like Fort Worth, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio.…

  • Coleman, Ornette · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, the birthplace of a musician who would change jazz forever: Ornette Coleman. Born here in 1930, Coleman was largely self-taught, picking up the saxophone around age fourteen. He honed…

  • Courtright, Timothy Isaiah · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, the city once patrolled by the legendary two-gun marshal, Timothy Isaiah Courtright, known as 'Longhair Jim.' Born in Illinois in 1845, Courtright served with distinction in the Civil…

  • Crystal Springs Dance Pavilion · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, and right here on White Settlement Road, you might have passed the site of the Crystal Springs Dance Pavilion. Opened in March 1916, this honky-tonk was more than just a place to dance…

  • Ealey, Robert · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, a city that became the home base for one of Texas's most influential blues musicians, Robert Ealey. Born in Texarkana in 1925, Ealey found his calling in the blues after starting his…

  • First Baptist Church, Fort Worth · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, and right here is the site of a church that became famous, or infamous, for its fiery pastor, John Franklyn Norris. He took the helm of First Baptist Church in 1909 and stayed for the…

  • Freese, Simon Wilke · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, and right here is a story about water, engineering, and a man named Simon Wilke Freese. Born in Blossom back in 1900, Freese became a brilliant civil engineer. After studying at MIT…

  • Gladney Center for Adoption · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, and right here is the Gladney Center for Adoption. It started way back in 1887, not as a formal agency, but as a group of women worried about homeless kids in this booming railroad…

  • Gladney, Edna Browning Kahly · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, a city forever changed by Edna Gladney. Born in Wisconsin, Edna moved to Fort Worth in 1904 and quickly became involved in society. But her true calling emerged when she discovered the…

  • Glenn, Darrell Orvis · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, a city that became the unlikely birthplace of a song that would echo across generations: 'Crying in the Chapel.' It was here, back in 1953, that a young Darrell Glenn, still in high…

  • Great Southwest Strike · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, right where one of the biggest labor showdowns in 19th-century American history went down. It's 1886, and the powerful Knights of Labor are clashing with railroad baron Jay Gould.…

  • Harris, Abraham · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, a city that owes its very existence to a cabinetmaker named Abraham Harris. Born in England, Harris enlisted in the U.S. Army and, with his carpentry skills, helped build the barracks…

  • Hayes, James Anthony · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, where Jim Hayes turned a life-changing accident into a lifelong mission. On his eighteenth birthday in 1967, a diving accident left him paralyzed. But instead of giving up, Hayes,…

  • Hell's Half Acre, Fort Worth · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth right now, passing through the legendary Hell's Half Acre. Back in the late 1800s, this was the wild, wide-open red-light district, the first thing trail drivers saw coming into town.…

  • Jim Hotel · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, and right here is where a legendary music venue once stood: the Jim Hotel. Built in the late 1920s by millionaire William Madison McDonald, it became a premier "Negro" inn. But the…

  • Jones, Morgan · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth right now, a city that owes its very existence to a railroad race against time. Back in 1876, the tracks for the Texas and Pacific Railway had stalled just sixteen miles away. The city,…

  • Kimbell Art Museum · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, and right here is the Kimbell Art Museum. It all started back in 1931 when Kay Kimbell's wife, Velma, convinced him to buy a British portrait. That sparked a passion, and by the time…

  • Kimbell, Kay · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, a city that owes much of its cultural wealth to a man named Kay Kimbell. Born in Oakwood, Leon County, Kimbell was an entrepreneur who built a vast business empire, heading over…

  • Kruger, Sam · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Texas, maybe near Fort Worth, where a young immigrant named Sam Kruger arrived around 1907. He came from Ukraine with dreams of a better life, and he brought his watchmaking skills with him.…

  • Law, Robert D. · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, a city that's home to heroes. Right here, in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1969</say-as>, Specialist Fourth Class Robert D. Law was on patrol in Vietnam. His unit was…

  • Leonard, Obadiah Paul · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, and right here, you're passing the historic site of Leonard Brothers department store. This place was a Texas innovator, installing the state's first escalator after World War II! And…

  • Light Crust Doughboys · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and right here, back in 1931, a band that would become a Texas legend was born: The Light Crust Doughboys. Sponsored by a local flour company, they hit the airwaves…

  • Marsh, William John · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, the city that became home to William John Marsh, a composer with a Texas-sized talent! Born in England, Marsh moved here in 1904 and eventually became a professor at TCU. But you might…

  • Miller, Roger Dean · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, the birthplace of Roger Miller, the singer-songwriter behind "King of the Road." He was born here in 1936, but spent his early years raised by relatives in Oklahoma. Miller had no…

  • Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, the "Cradle of Western Swing." Right here, Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies were making some of the earliest sounds of the genre in the early 1930s. Brown, a former cigar…

  • Norris, John Franklyn · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, the heart of a forty-four-year ministry that shook Texas. John Franklyn Norris, a fundamentalist preacher, took over the First Baptist Church right here in 1909. He wasn't shy about…

  • O'Daniel, Wilbert Lee [Pappy] · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, the city that W. Lee 'Pappy' O'Daniel called home when he first hit the big time. He wasn't a politician then, but a flour salesman. In 1928, he took over his company's radio ads and…

  • Ousley, Curtis [King Curtis] · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, not far from Fort Worth, the birthplace of a true music legend. "King Curtis" Ousley, born here in 1934, became one of the most influential saxophonists of the 20th century. He honed…

  • Oxsheer, Fountain Goodlet · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, a city that was home to F.G. Oxsheer, a titan of the Texas cattle industry. After the Civil War, Oxsheer started by driving longhorns north. By the 1890s, he controlled a staggering…

  • O’Brien, George Herman, Jr. · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Fort Worth, and right here, we remember George Herman O'Brien, Jr. On October 26, 1952, during the Korean War, Chinese forces threatened a critical Marine position known as 'The Hook.' The very next…

  • Panther Hall · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, and right here, you might have passed Panther Hall. Opened in 1963 as a bowling alley, it quickly transformed into a legendary music venue. It started with rock and roll, but found its…

  • Pendleton, Charles F. · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, a city that sent Corporal Charles F. Pendleton to the Korean War. On July 16th and 17th, 1953, near Choo Gung-Dong, Pendleton was a machine gunner holding a key position. Under heavy…

  • Richardson, Sid Williams · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, maybe heading towards Fort Worth. Right here, you're passing through the territory of Sid Richardson, a man who built an empire from oil and cattle. By 1935, he opened the rich…

  • Schwarz, Edwin G. · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Fort Worth, a city that owes a lot to the pioneering spirit of Dr. Edwin G. Schwarz. Born in Lockhart in 1894, Dr. Schwarz came to Fort Worth after serving in World War I. In 1919, he opened a…

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