Staycations & Vacations
Old West attractions to enjoy in your home state and in the wild West beyond.
By: Meghan Saar 03/01/2009
FORT WORTH, TX
World’s Largest Honky-Tonk: The three-acre Billy Bob’s Texas houses an indoor rodeo (with real bulls, not mechanical ones) and a dance floor where Dolly Parton’s rhinestone saddle revolves above your head.
Museums Galore: Want Western art? Head to Amon Carter in the city’s cultural district and Sid Richardson at Sundance Square (an area formerly known as Hell’s Half Acre). Don’t know much about cowgirls? Head over to the National Cowgirl Museum. Into rodeo and horses? Equine champs are honored at the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Drink to a Classic Gunfight: At the White Elephant Saloon, raise your glass to co-owner Luke Short and Marshal Jim Courtright’s gunfight, which took place outside here in 1887. Courtright bit the bullet; Short died six years later. Their bodies are resting for eternity together in the local cemetery.
GPS the Stockyards: A walking tour of Stockyards Station is offered via GPS, hosted by rodeo stars Pam Minick and Bob Tallman. Then check out the world’s only twice-daily cattle drive.
Log This in Your Logbook: Costumed interpreters share pioneer stories at Log Cabin Village, home to nine log houses dating to the mid-1800s.
Near Fort Worth:
Ride on the Grapevine Vintage Railroad from Fort Worth to Grapevine (23 miles northeast), where you can sip wine made by Cross Timbers Winery at the 1874 Brock Family farmhouse.
Pioneer life from 1840-1910, including Texas’s secession from the U.S. in 1861, is shared in 38 historic buildings in Dallas (34 miles east), at Dallas Heritage Village.
Denton (37 miles north) offers exhibits on local historical families at the 1896 Courthouse-On-the-Square Museum, while you can learn Victorian-era home arts at the Bayless-Selby House Museum.
Mesquite (45 miles east) is home to the 1872 Florence Ranch homestead and the Opal Lawrence park, with a farmstead complex of buildings dating to the 1870s.
Waco (88 miles south) celebrates a Lone Star State icon at the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum.
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