Site of Fort Worth - Fort Worth, Texas
Posted by: txoilgas
N 32° 45.446 W 097° 20.065
14S E 656025 N 3625623
Site of the original fort named Fort Worth. The location now is the Tarrant County Criminal Courts Building.
Waymark Code: WM5V54
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/14/2009
Views: 7
Fort Worth - Points of Interest
1. The SITE OF FORT WORTH, NW. corner Houston and Belknap
Sts., is marked by a bronze plaque in the southeast corner of the
grounds of the Criminal Courts Building.
TEXAS - A GUIDE TO THE LONE STAR STATE, 1940 p 262
The Texas historical marker at the location states.
Founded June 6, 1849, as frontier post of Co. F., 2nd Dragoons, 8th Dept., U.S. Army. The commander, Maj. Ripley Arnold, named camp for his former superior officer, Maj. Gen William Jenkins Worth. In 4 years of operations, the post had but one serious Indian encounter. A town grew up alongside the fort, as center for supply stores and stagecoach routes.
In 1856 Fort Worth became county seat of Tarrant County. A boom started after 1867 when millions of longhorns were driven through town en route to Red River Crossing and Chisholm Traill. Herds forded the Trinity below Courthouse Bluff, one block north of this site. Cowboys got supplies for the long uptrail drive and caroused in taverns and dance halls.
After railroad arrived in 1876, increased cattle traffic won city the nickname of "Cowtown".
By 1900, Fort Worth was one of world's largest cattle markets. Population tripled between 1900 and 1910. Growth continued, based on varied multimillion-dollar industries of meat packing, flour milling, grain storage, oil, aircraft plants and military bases. Fort Worth also has developed as a center of culture, with universities, museums, art galleries, theatres and a botanic garden. (1969)