Ranchers Honky Tonkin’ at the Fort Worth Stockyards
Ranchers Boot Scootin’ at Pearl’s Dancehall
Scott and Vicki Baker
Yeehaw! Led by trail boss Debra Davis, 16 brave souls ventured off the Ranch and beyond the big brown gates to check out the Honky Tonkin’ night life in the Fort Worth Stockyards on Saturday night, July 18. History has it that as drovers headed longhorn cattle up the Chisolm Trail to the railheads, Fort Worth was the last major stop for rest and supplies. Between 1866 and 1890, more than four million head of cattle were trailed through Fort Worth, which became known as “Cowtown.” The city had its own disreputable entertainment district known all over the West as “Hell’s Half Acre.” Here there were saloons, dance halls and bawdy houses interspersed with legitimate businesses.
As we ventured into the Stockyard’s Hell’s Half Acre, not much has changed since the 1800s; still plenty of saloons, dance halls, bawdy houses and yes all those legitimate businesses offering everything “cowboy.” The smell of barbeque was in the air, and what better place to enjoy authentic BBQ than at Riscky’s Barbeque, a Texas legend since 1927. Polish immigrant Joe Riscky came to Fort Worth and went to work at Armour Packing Company in the Stockyards in 1911. He and his wife opened Riscky’s Grocery and Market in 1927 a few miles from the Stockyards. They began offering lunches of homemade barbeque. Cowtown loved it, and the Riscky family has been in business ever since.
With bellies full and thirsts quenched, we strolled along the streets of Cowtown. Several of us shopped for western duds and accessories as we moseyed our way from Riscky’s to Pearl’s Dancehall and Saloon, “The Gem of the Stockyards.” Buffalo Bill Cody showed up in the Fort Worth Stockyards in the 1800s and felt the nightlife was lacking, so he opened a bordello called Hotel Pearl’s. These days Pearl’s offers the best Traditional Country, Western Swing, and Honky-Tonk music around. On the dance floor cowboys and cowgirls two-stepped, shuffled and waltzed to the finest music there is played by Jeff Woolsey and the Dance Hall Kings. The music kicked in at 9:00 p.m. and continued to the wee hours of the morning until around 3:00 a.m.
We stepped back in history and sampled just a taste of what being a true Texan really is. Today’s Fort Worth Stockyards is a living history book of the livestock industry in Texas with each chapter represented by the original bricks and mortar, wood corrals and music that are still a part of the city today.