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Fort Worth
Where the West begins, on the West Fork of the Trinity
Fort Worth began in 1849 as an army outpost on a bluff above the West Fork of the Trinity River, on the edge of the frontier. It became a stop on the Chisholm Trail, where cattle drives paused on the way north, and earned its enduring identity as the place where the West begins — the last big city before the open ranching country of West Texas. The stockyards made it a great cattle and meatpacking center.
Just west of Dallas, with which it shares a sprawling metro, Fort Worth sits where the blackland prairie gives way to the rolling Cross Timbers and the drier country beyond. It has kept a distinct western, ranching character next to its larger commercial twin, anchoring the western half of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex.