{"id":708,"date":"2015-01-25T21:57:26","date_gmt":"2015-01-25T21:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/?p=708"},"modified":"2015-01-25T21:57:26","modified_gmt":"2015-01-25T21:57:26","slug":"focus-on-the-backroads-fort-worth-stock-show-and-rodeo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/?p=708","title":{"rendered":"FOCUS ON THE BACKROADS: FORT WORTH STOCK SHOW AND RODEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Mid-January\u00a0means only one thing in North Texas, the annual Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo<\/strong> has rolled around again. \u00a0This event is kick started each year with the traditional Fort Worth Stock Show’s \u00a0<\/strong>All Western Parade<\/strong>, <\/em>which is held the first Saturday of the of the show in downtown Fort Worth. \u00a0An All Western Parade mean that motorized vehicles are not allow to participate – the result are plenty of wagons, horses, and longhorns! \u00a0Every year more than 100,000 people of all ages line the streets of Cowtown to see the spectacular event.<\/p>\n

Fort Worth proudly wears the title of Cowtown – After the Civil War there were millions of longhorn cattle roaming the Texas plains. \u00a0Most of the country’s economy was devastated these Longhorns were a value resource for Texas. \u00a0For over two decades, Longhorns were rounded up and driven north to Kansas to be railed across the country. \u00a0During this period over six million longhorns made the three month journey north – each head commanded about $40.00 in the Northeast. \u00a0Fort Worth benefited greatly as it was the last place for drovers to purchase supplies \u00a0prior to their 500 mile journey north. \u00a0These cowboys use the, now historic, Chisholm Trail (which will be a subject for a future entry) to drive the cattle overland to Kansas.<\/p>\n

The first Stock Show took place in March of 1896. \u00a0The second on October 12-13 of the same year. \u00a0 It was opened by the first Stock Show Parade. \u00a0In 1901 it was renamed: \u00a0Texas Fat Stock Show<\/strong>. \u00a0The first rodeo event occurred in 1904 when Bill Pickett \u00a0“The Dusty Demon” \u00a0demonstrated his bulldogging (steer wrestling) act. \u00a0Pickett invented bulldogging when an angry cow tried to gore his horse – according to Bill, he jumped on the cow and twisted its neck until it fell to the ground. \u00a0This gave birth to one of the most popular events in today rodeo arenas. \u00a0Bill Pickett is know as Americas first black cowboy and was the first black cowboy elected to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. \u00a0Note: \u00a0While in Fort Worth be sure and visit the statue of “The Dusty Demon” in the Fort Worth Stockyards.<\/p>\n

The rodeo was added to the then Southwestern Exposition and Fat Stock Show in 1918 at the Northside Coliseum becoming the first indoor rodeo event – it was an instant success. \u00a0The feature events were Ladies’ Bucking Bronco, \u00a0Junior Steer Riding, Men’s Steer Riding, and Men’s Bucking Bronco. \u00a0In 1944 the Stock Show was moved to it’s current location, the Will Rogers Memorial Center. \u00a0That year Gene Autry became the first entertainer to appear at the rodeo. \u00a0In 1958, the rodeo was the first one in the nation to receive complete live coverage on national TV. It was hosted by Roy Rogers and Dale Evens on NBC-TV.<\/p>\n

Over the years, many barns, buildings and exhibit halls have been built on the site. \u00a0Each year 4-H members show their award winning live stock. \u00a0The Rodeo remains one of the best in the nation. \u00a0In 2012 the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo<\/strong> broke an all time attendance record. \u00a0During it 23 day run more than 1,186,000 folks visited the show. \u00a0My granddaughter and I were 2 of those people (we have a pink cowgirl hat to prove it).<\/p>\n

A visit to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo<\/strong> is a must – it is a great time for people of all ages. \u00a0During a visit you will see prize winning livestock raised by some of the nicest young boy and girls you will ever meet. \u00a0There are many interesting exhibits, competitions, of course THE RODEO; the ever popular midway, and last but not least – FOOD – corn dogs, turkey legs, funnel cakes, BBQ, nachos, and any thing you could ever think of frying is there!<\/p>\n

THE FORT WORTH STOCK SHOW AND RODEO<\/strong> is an event to be share with the whole family.<\/p>\n

It’s the broncs and the blood – It’s the steers and the mud – And they call the thing rodeo….RODEO by Larry Bastian\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mid-January\u00a0means only one thing in North Texas, the annual Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo has rolled around again. \u00a0This event is kick started each …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-texas-events","category-texas-towns"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Fort-Worth-Stock-Show-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=708"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":745,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions\/745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}