The Brown Derby, located on North Main Street near the stockyards, opened in July 1986. Unfortunately, it lasted less than a year and closed on April 15, 1987. The young man wearing suspenders at the far left of the second row is Billy Joe Gabriel, who worked as a waiter during those months. In the following years, Gabriel founded a free newspaper called the Stockyards Gazette to support the area. He later changed the name to the Fort Worth Gazette.
This is the entrance to Billy Bob's Texas, a world-famous entertainment complex and concert venue located at the northern end of the Fort Worth Stockyards complex. Billy Bob's opened in 1991, although the building had been constructed by the City of Fort Worth in 1936 as an exhibition hall for the annual livestock show.
Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr celebrates his performance at Billy Bob's here with a “V” for victory gesture. His visit demonstrates the club's ability to attract top performers. Early in the morning, before preparations for the show begin, stockyards tour guides let their customers take a look inside.
Sonny Burgess, a local entertainer from Cleburne, Texas, plays the fiddle at Billy Bob's Texas—the world's largest honky-tonk. Billy Bob's featured mostly country and western singers every Friday and Saturday night. Visitors coming to the stockyards for the weekend could thus enjoy a performance at Billy Bob's one evening and a rodeo at Cowtown Coliseum the next day.
Local country singer Red Steagall, the official cowboy poet of Texas, lives several miles west of Fort Worth and regularly participates in events at the stockyards, including his annual Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering in October. A regular part of this gathering is a horse-drawn wagon that travels more than 80 kilometers to the Fort Worth Stockyards. Upon its arrival, the festivities begin—cowboy stories, singing, and poetry.
Famous celebrities Tommy Lee and Ludacris visited a rodeo at Cowtown Coliseum one evening and took part in calf catching. Their participation was filmed for the Discovery Channel show Battleground Earth.
Among the personalities who have appeared at the Fort Worth Stockyards many times is Willie Nelson. This folk-country singer has deep roots in the stockyards area—his father worked at a gas station on the North Side as early as the 1940s.
Cowtown Opry is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving, performing, and promoting the Texas musical tradition. It is, of course, based in the Fort Worth Stockyards. Every Sunday from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., it holds free western music shows for the public on the steps of the Livestock Exchange Building.
Trevor Brazile was inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in January 2008. He earned the title of Champion All Around Cowboy as well as an award for timed roping. He is from Decatur, Texas.
The photograph shows key investors in the modern Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District. From left to right: developer Holt Hickman, owner of the Livestock Exchange Building and part of Billy Bob's Texas; Billy Minick, general manager and co-owner of Billy Bob's Texas; Steve Murrin, president of the Stockyards Preservation Foundation and co-owner of Billy Bob's Texas; Hub Baker, general manager of Cowtown Coliseum; and Don Jury, also a co-owner of Billy Bob's Texas.
Joe Dulle, Gene Miller, and Jane Schlansker (from left to right) were the founders of White Elephant Enterprises, Inc., which had operated nearly a dozen businesses in the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District since the 1970s. Dulle served as president. Their involvement and that of their investors played a crucial role in the successful revitalization of the area over the following decades. The photograph was taken in front of the White Elephant Saloon when it opened in 1976.
Kristin Liggett served as president of the Fort Worth Stockyards Business Association in 2008. The photograph shows her in her second role—as leader of the Fort Worth Herd, a popular herd of Texas longhorn cattle that travels along East Exchange Avenue every day at 11:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. to the delight of tourists.
In early spring 2008, during the campaign leading up to the Texas primary for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton addressed a large crowd at the Fort Worth Stockyards. In doing so, she followed the example of Theodore Roosevelt and Jimmy Carter, who had also spoken there. Although Ronald Reagan came to Fort Worth's North Side, he delivered his speech at Meacham Field, several kilometers farther north on North Main Street.
Those who know him well call Steve Murrin “Cowboy” because he always looks like a real cowboy. Wherever he goes, Murrin wears jeans, boots, a large white hat, a red bandanna, and a mustache. The successful development of the stockyards owes much to local native Steve Murrin. This western image of Murrin with his horse Matt Dillon is a fitting conclusion to this photographic journey through the history of the Fort Worth Stockyards.
