We went to visit the Stockyards in Fort Worth and learned that is was referred to as the Wall Street of the West because there was a time that it was where the most money in the west was made because of the cattle.
After the Civil War growing cotton and selling cattle were the two main ways to make money in Texas. If you grew cotton, you had to get it to a place to sell it and the best way to do that was to take it on a cart to Galveston where it could be shipped by boat because there weren't any railroads in Texas. Cattle were roaming free in Texas, and the people in the north were in need of meat. This led to the Texans starting cattle drives. The cattle had to travel about 800 miles to get to Kansas where the nearest railroad was. The cattle went slow so they could eat and drink all they wanted along the way. What is now the city of Fort Worth was about halfway along the journey. The cowboys would rest, let their cattle rest, and get more supplies there. This is why Fort Worth is nicknamed "cow town."
Below you can see a video of a short cattle drive down the streets of Fort Worth. This reenactment takes place twice a day everyday at the Fort Worth Stockyards.
To take 2500 cows on this journey it took 13 cowboys: 1 trail boss, 1 chuck wagon, 1 wrangler for the horses, and 10 cowboys to herd the cattle. Below is an example of how the group would travel.
One fun thing we did, was a maze. The maze was made like the cattle chutes the cows went through. Below is a picture and a short video of the maze.
I got to sit on a longhorn. I liked that too. Going to the stockyards was a good way to spend the day.
