Every July, something sacred stirs in the streets of Fort Worth. It isn’t just the midday rumble of longhorn hooves or the flash of silver belt buckles catching the Texas sun. It’s the living, breathing heartbeat of a city that never forgot its roots. On Saturday, July 26, the Fort Worth Stockyards will once again throw open its gates and roll out the welcome mat for the 19th Annual National Day of the American Cowboy, a daylong, citywide roundup of parades, rodeos, poetry, and plain ol’ cowboy grit.
From 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., the Stockyards will host a sprawling celebration that pays tribute to the cowboys and cowgirls who helped build Texas — and the ones still riding strong.
It’s hard to imagine a more fitting place to honor cowboy culture than the Stockyards, where history clings to the limestone walls like dust after a cattle drive. Founded in 1849 by Major Ripley Arnold, Fort Worth was the final “civilized” outpost on the Chisholm Trail — a last chance for drovers to wet their whistles before pushing herds north. By the 1870s, the arrival of the Texas & Pacific Railroad transformed this outpost into an empire. Livestock poured through the pens like water through a spout. And during the Depression, the Stockyards stood tall as the largest livestock trading center in the U.S…