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One step inside the Railhead Smokehouse, Fort Worth's most popular barbecue restaurant, you'll seethe slogan that pretty much captures a prevalent Cowtown attitude: "Life's too short to live in Dallas." Emblazoned on staff and souvenir T-shirts the sentiment has been around since long before anyone can remember. Railhead owner Charlie Geren, who represents the Ninety-ninth District in the State Legislature, says he found the motto on a plaque in an antique market years ago. He stuck it on his restaurant T-shirts, and the town has taken it too heart.

"Our town is great for its mix of culture and cowboys, and that all intertwines to make it like no place else," says Geren, also a partner in a commercial real estate firm in Forth Worth. "People see Dallas as pretty, but in Forth Worth, we're a place with people who get things done." Geren points to a generous community, full of residents who have built some magnificent places with private funds. He cites the Bass Performance Hall downtown as a rather recent example, along with the internationally acclaimed new Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Geren's outlook, of course, can be traced back to that of an earlier philanthropist, Amon G. Carter, first publisher of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Carter was famous for taking his own sack lunch and drinking water with him when he was forced to go to Dallas for business meetings, so as not to spend a cent of his money in that city. Carter became legendary for his support of Fort Worth; he was known to walk into a hotel lobby in New York and shout, "Hooray for Fort Worth! Hooray for West Texas!" He coined a catchy phrase, part of which is still carried on the front page of the Star-Telegram: "Fort Worth is where the West begins."

Carter's legacy is found today throughout the city, as he was responsible for the founding of the spectacular Amon Carter Museum, a beautiful storehouse and exhibition space for American art, and for establishing the Will Rogers Memorial Center, where some of the nation's greatest equestrian and livestock events are staged.

These elements of culture and cowboys continue to define a place lovingly called Cowtown, where residents enjoy bringing friends from out of town to experience a unique brand of heritage and fun. When people want to experience a piece of the Old West, they can start in Fort Worth.

WHERE THE WEST BEGINS

Fort Worth's birth in 1849 is traced to a military camp established toward the end of the Mexican War by Gen. Winfield Scott and named for Gen. William Jenkins Worth, who served in that war. It became the Tarrant County seat in 1860, and soon after the Civil War it became a shipping and supply depot for cattlemen.

As demand for beef in the East exploded after the Civil War, millions of cattle were driven from all points in the southern parts of Texas through Fort Worth along the renowned Chisholm Trail. Fort Worth was considered the last chance for rest, gambling, spirits, and desirable companionship before tackling the arduous weeks of northward trail driving through lonely prairies in Indian territory.

The Stockyards National Historic District offers enough fun to fill a couple of days of modern R&R. After dropping your bags at the fabulous Stockyards Hotel or Miss Molly's, a bordello turned bed-and-breakfast inn, you'll take to the streets to explore...

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