Fort Worth Stockyards Horse and Mule Barns
Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Fort Worth Stock Yard Company's wooden horse and mule barns on this site were destroyed by fire on March 14, 1911, opening day of the Feeders and Breeders show (later Southwestern Exposition & Fat Stock Show). The show opened as planned, with former President Theodore Roosevelt giving the opening address. The company announced plans to replace the destroyed barns immediately with new concrete and steel fireproof buildings. Construction was completed in March 1912, and the new barns measuring 540'x350' had a capacity for 3000 animals. With a price tag of $300,000, the buildings were described as among the finest stables in the world. Activity here increased considerably in 1914, at the outbreak of World War I. Horses and mules were needed in great supply by European armies, and agents were sent in droves to Fort Worth to buy stock, spending an estimated $11 million. During that time, Fort Worth was designated the largest horse and mule market in the world. The wide space between the buildings has over the years spawned the nickname "Mule Alley". In recent years the barns have been used for various cultural activities and annual events. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Stock Yard Company's wooden horse and mule barns burned on March 14, 1911—opening day of the show later known as the Southwestern Exposition & Fat Stock Show, which went on as planned with former President Theodore Roosevelt delivering the opening address. Rebuilt in 1912 as fireproof concrete-and-steel structures holding 3,000 animals, the barns became some of the finest stables in the world. When World War I broke out in 1914, European armies bought Fort Worth horses and mules by the trainload, spending an estimated $11 million and making the city the largest horse and mule market on earth.
Why it matters
The barns show how Fort Worth's livestock industry fed the vast animal-powered logistics of World War I, supplying the armies of Europe from the Texas plains.
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Related people
- · Theodore Roosevelt
Related events
- · World War I
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Fort Worth Livestock Exchange
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In the late 1860s Fort Worth was a stop on the great cattle trails, and by the 1870s it had organized a market that would become one of the world's greatest cattle centers. This building, erected in 1902-03, housed the Stockyards Company, livestock commissions, and buyers as trading nearly doubled and small packing plants gave way to multi-million-dollar operations. Surrounded then by lawns, the exchange stood at the heart of an industry that earned Fort Worth its nickname, "Cowtown."
Fort Worth Stock Yards Company
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Formed in 1893 when a Boston-led group of investors bought the Fort Worth Union Stock Yards, this company transformed the city into a livestock capital. It courted the Cattle Raisers Association and lured meatpacking giants Armour and Swift to build plants nearby, then drew animals to market through publicity and its Fat Stock Show. During World War I, foreign armies buying draft animals made Fort Worth the world's largest horse and mule market, and receipts soared into the millions before postwar decline.
Fort Worth Stockyards Hog and Sheep Markets
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After the Fort Worth Union Stock Yards struggled to convince Texans to raise hogs, the stockyards launched an aggressive 1903 campaign of cash prizes and a youth Pig Club program that sent hog processing soaring from about 150,000 in 1903 to over a million by 1917. Sheep numbers likewise climbed, and by 1936 Texas led the nation in both cattle and sheep. Demand surged again during World War II, when the yards processed more than two million sheep a year, cementing Fort Worth as one of America's largest livestock centers.
Coliseum
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Built in 1907–08 with money from the Swift and Armour packing companies and the Fort Worth Stock Yards, this hall finally gave the traveling Fat Stock Show a permanent home. Within its walls the indoor rodeo was born, and in 1923 WBAP carried the first live radio broadcast of a rodeo from this very floor. Over the decades the Coliseum also welcomed former President Theodore Roosevelt, who spoke here in 1911, and the great tenor Enrico Caruso, who sang here in 1920—all while the ground beneath it passed through three different cities.