While watching Crying Indian recently I saw scenes of modernization mixed with visions from times passed. I thought of Fort Worth. I was struck by the idea that society's ever growing desire to have more has killed what we once were. Our History is important. Where we are from shapes where we will go. Fort Worth is the personification of this ideal. We were once rugged cattle raising settlers, some of us still are. The years have passed and the people who call Fort Worth home still hold tightly the belief that we are rugged pioneer men and women. Fort Worth is where the west began. Cattlemen driving their herds up the Chisholm Trail stopped in Fort Worth as it was the last stop before crossing the Red River into Indian Territory. They stopped here in Fort Worth, the last place to get supplies and rest before entering the unknown enviornment of the West.
Four million head of cattle came through Fort Worth between 1866 and 1890, a fact that brought rise to the moniker "Cowtown." The arrival of the railroad in 1876 made Fort Worth a major shipping point for cattle and other livestock. The Union Stockyards company needed funds to keep the stockyards thriving so a Boston business man by the name of Greenleif Simpson was brought to Fort Worth in hopes that he would invest. Simpson was so impressed with what he saw he contacted fellow entrepreneurs and in 1893 together they bought the Union stock and formed Fort Worth Stockyards Company.
The company soon realized that it would be much more profitable to process the meat locally rather than ship it out for processing. Armour and Company and Swift and Company were both persuaded to come to Fort Worth and open meat packing plants. The decision of where each company would be built was decided by a coin toss. Armour and Company won that toss and decided to build their plant on the northern site, leaving the southern site for Swift and Company. Construction began in 1902 and both plants officially opened in 1903.
The population of the city tripled within the ten years of the arrival of Amour and Swift. Due to the benefits and salaries offered, Fort Worth was flooded with workers. Many were immigrants who came to Texas through the Galveston port.
The Swift plant was thought to be better plant of the two. The founder of Swift and Company, Gustavus Swift was the inventor of the refrigerated rail car. His plant was highly insulated by double brick walls which ensured meat freshness.
The Fort Worth Stockyards was the largest livestock market in the world in 1917, the height of World War I. During World War II over 5,000,000,000 head of livestock were sold or processed. By 1986 only 57,181 animals were sold in the Fort Worth Stockyards.
There has been much discussion regarding the decline of the Fort Worth Stockyards. Most historians agree that the trucking industry and the interstate highway project were the major contributors to the death of the meat packing industry in Fort Worth. The advantage of shipping in bulk became less appealing when compared to lower cost of trucking. Further more, consumers began to demand specialty cuts of meat over the factory style meats produced by both Armour and Company and Swift and Company.
The Armour plant officially closed in 1962, followed by the close of the Swift plant in 1971. Over the years the once regal and innovative plants have fallen to ruin and destruction. The 18 acre site of the Armour plant was purchased by Chesapeake Energy in 2007. The company had plans to drill on the site. Those plans have changed. The site is now planned to be sold for redevelopment. Kimberly Britton, the director of community relations for Chesapeake said, " We looked at the buildings to see if they might be salvaged, but they were in such horrible condition that we realized that we wouldn't be able to restore them."
The fate of the Swift and Company plant is just as depressing. The Swift site is fenced and covered in graffiti. It appears as though it has been bombed.
The Stockyards Museum website states that "Many thousands of head of cattle are still sold in the stockyards every week via video/satelite sales..."
Gone are the days of herds taken up the Chisholm Trail. Gone are the days of Fort Worth being the last stop before the expanse of the West. The meat packing industry that served as the heart of Fort Worth industry for so many years has been tossed, just like that coin so many years ago.
Works Cited
“A History of the Fort Worth Stockyards” Stockyards Museum. 2009. Web. February 20, 2012.
Image also provided from site.
Steve Campbell. “Historic Fort Worth Stockyards meatpacking plant will be demolished.” Fort Worth Star Telegram. November 07, 2011. February 20, 2012.
Tavo. 2010. The Meddling Misfits [database on-line] (Google Images, accessed February 21, 2012) available <http://meddlingmisfits.blogspot.com>
Adams dedicated his life to the environment and the preservation of natural landscapes. He became a member of the Sierra Club at the young age of seventeen and remained a member throughout his life. He served on the board for over 30 years.
