Coordinates	56°30′″N84°58′″N
Name	City of Fort Worth
Settlement type	City
Nickname	Cowtown, Funkytown, Panther City;
Motto	"Where the West begins"
Image seal	Fort Worth seal.jpg
Map caption	Location of Fort Worth in Tarrant County, Texas
Pushpin map	USA
Pushpin map caption	Location in the United States
Coordinates display	inline,title
Coordinates region	US-TX
Subdivision type	Country
Subdivision name	United States
Subdivision type1	State
Subdivision name1	Texas
Subdivision type2	Counties
Subdivision name2	Tarrant, Denton, Parker, Johnson, Wise
Government type	Council-Manager
Leader title	City Council
Leader name	Mayor Betsy Price Danny Scarth Sal Espino W. B. Zimmerman Frank Moss Jungus Jordan Dennis Shingleton Kathleen Hicks Joel Burns
Leader title1	City Manager
Leader name1	Dale A. Fisseler
Established date	september 15, 1745
Unit pref	US
Area magnitude	1 E8
Area total km2	774.1
Area total sq mi	298.9
Area land km2	757.7
Area land sq mi	292.5
Area water km2	16.4
Area water sq mi	6.3
Population as of	2010
Population metro	6,145,037
Population total	741,206 (16th)
Population density km2	927.9
Population density sq mi	2403.7
Population blank1	Fort Worthians|population_blank1_title Demonym
Population blank1	Fort Worthians
Timezone	CST
Utc offset	-6
Timezone dst	CDT
Utc offset dst	-5
Area code	682, 817
Elevation m	216
Elevation ft	653
Website	fortworthgov.org
Blank name	FIPS code
Blank info	48-27000
Blank1 name	GNIS feature ID
Blank1 info	1380947
Footnotes	}}

Fort Worth is the sixteenth-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just Southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and Wise counties, serving as the seat for Tarrant County. According to the 2010 Census, Fort Worth had a population of 741,206. It has been estimated that by 2030 it will have 1,211,665 residents. The city is the second most populous in the metropolitan area.

The city was established in 1849 as an Army outpost on a bluff overlooking the Trinity River. Today Fort Worth still embraces its Western heritage and traditional architecture and design.

USS Fort Worth (LCS-3) is the first ship of the United States Navy named after the city.

History

The Mexican-American War

Major General William Jenkins Worth (1794–1849) was second in command to General Zachary Taylor at the opening of the Mexican-American War in 1846. After the war Worth was placed in command of the Department of Texas in 1849.

In January 1849 Worth proposed a line of ten forts to mark the Western Texas frontier from Eagle Pass to the confluence of the West Fork and Clear Fork of the Trinity River. One month later Worth died from cholera. General William S. Harney assumed command of the Department of Texas and ordered Major Ripley A. Arnold to find a new fort site near the West Fork and Clear Fork. On June 6, 1849, Arnold established a camp on the bank of the Trinity River and named the post Camp Worth in honor of the late General Worth. In August 1849 Arnold moved the camp to the North-facing bluff which overlooked the mouth of the Clear Fork of the Trinity River.

Although Native American attacks were still a threat in the area, pioneers were already settling near the fort. E. S. Terrell (1812–1905) claimed to be the first resident of Fort Worth. The fort was flooded the first year and moved to the top of the bluff where the courthouse sits today. No trace of the original fort remains.

The town

Fort Worth went from a sleepy outpost to a bustling town when it became a stop along the legendary Chisholm Trail, the dusty path on which millions of head of cattle were driven North to market. Fort Worth became the center of the cattle drives, and later, the ranching industry. Its location on the Old Chisholm Trail helped establish Fort Worth as a trading and cattle center and earned it the nickname "Cowtown."

During the 1860s Fort Worth suffered from the effects of the Civil War, and Reconstruction. The population dropped as low as 175, as money, food, and supply shortages burdened the residents. Gradually, however, the town began to revive.

By 1872 Jacob Samuels, William Jesse Boaz, and William Henry Davis had opened general stores. The next year Khleber M. Van Zandt established Tidball, Van Zandt, and Company, which became Fort Worth National Bank in 1884.

Panther City

In 1875, the ''Dallas Herald'' published an article by a former Fort Worth lawyer, Robert E. Cowart. Mr. Cowart wrote that the decimation of Fort Worth's population, caused by the economic disaster and hard winter of 1873, had dealt a severe blow to the cattle industry. He further stated that the harm to the cattle industry, combined with the railroad stopping the laying of track outside of Fort Worth, had caused Fort Worth to become such a drowsy place that he saw a panther asleep in the street by the courthouse. Although an intended insult, the name Panther City was enthusiastically embraced when in 1876 Fort Worth recovered economically. Many businesses and organizations continue to use Panther in their name. The Fort Worth police have a panther prominently set at the top of their badge. In 1876, the Texas and Pacific Railway arrived in Fort Worth causing a boom and transformed the Fort Worth Stockyards into a premier cattle industry and in wholesale trade. The arrival of the railroad ushered in an era of astonishing growth for Fort Worth as migrants from the devastated war-torn South continued to swell the population and small, community factories and mills yielded to larger businesses. Newly dubbed the nickname, "Queen City of the Prairies", Fort Worth supplied a regional market via the growing transportation network.

Fort Worth became the westernmost railhead and a transit point for cattle shipment. With the city's main focus being on cattle and the railroads, local businessman, Louville Niles, formed the Fort Worth Stockyards Company in 1893. Shortly thereafter, the two biggest cattle slaughtering firms at the time, Armour and Swift, both established operations in the new stockyards.

With the boom times came some problems. Fort Worth had a knack for separating cattlemen from their money. Cowboys took full advantage of their last brush with civilization before the long drive on the Chisholm Trail from Fort Worth up North to Kansas. They stocked up on provisions from local merchants, visited the colorful saloons for a bit of gambling and carousing, then galloped northward with their cattle only to whoop it up again on their way back. The town soon became home to Hell's Half Acre, the biggest collection of bars, dance halls and bawdy houses south of Dodge City, Kansas (the northern terminus of the Chisholm Trail), giving Fort Worth the nickname of "The Paris of the Plains."

Crime was rampant and certain sections of town were off-limits for proper citizens. Shootings, knifings, muggings and brawls became a nightly occurrence. Cowboys were joined by a motley assortment of buffalo hunters, gunmen, adventurers, and crooks. As the importance of Fort Worth as a crossroads and cowtown grew, so did Hell's Half Acre.

What was originally limited to the lower end of Rusk Street (renamed Commerce Street in 1917) spread out in all directions. By 1881 the Fort Worth Democrat was complaining Hell's Half Acre covered more like .

The Acre grew until it sprawled across four of the city's main North-South thoroughfares. These boundaries, which were never formally recognized, represented the maximum area covered by the Acre, around 1900. Occasionally, the Acre was also referred to as "The bloody Third Ward" after it was designated one of the city's three political wards in 1876.

Long before the Acre reached its maximum boundaries, local citizens had become alarmed at the level of crime and violence in their city. In 1876 Timothy Isaiah (Longhair Jim) Courtright was elected City Marshal with a mandate to tame the Acre's wilder activities.

Courtright cracked down on violence and general rowdiness by sometimes putting as many as 30 people in jail on a Saturday night, but allowed the gamblers to operate unmolested. After receiving information that train and stagecoach robbers, such as the Sam Bass gang, were using the Acre as a hideout, local authorities intensified law-enforcement efforts. Yet certain businessmen placed a newspaper advertisement arguing that such legal restrictions in Hell's Half Acre would curtail the legitimate business activities there.

Despite this tolerance from business, however, the cowboys began to stay away, and the businesses began to suffer. City officials muted their stand against vice. Courtright lost support of the Fort Worth Democrat and consequently lost when he ran for reelection in 1879.

Throughout the 1880s and 1890s the Acre continued to attract gunmen, highway robbers, card sharps, con men, and shady ladies, who preyed on out-of-town and local sportsmen.

At one time or another reform-minded mayors like H. S. Broiles and crusading newspaper editors like B. B. Paddock declared war on the district but with no long-term results. The Acre meant income for the city (all of it illegal) and excitement for visitors. This could possibly be why the reputation of the Acre was sometimes exaggerated by raconteurs which longtime Fort Worth residents claimed the place was never as wild as its reputation.

Suicide was responsible for more deaths than murder, and the chief victims were prostitutes, not gunmen. However much its reputation was exaggerated, the real Acre was bad enough. The newspaper claimed "it was a slow night which did not pan out a cutting or shooting scrape among its male denizens or a morphine experiment by some of its frisky females."

The loudest outcries during the periodic clean-up campaigns were against the dance halls, where men and women met, as opposed to the saloons or the gambling parlors, which were virtually all male.

A major reform campaign in the late 1880s was brought on by Mayor Broiles and County Attorney R. L. Carlock after two events. In the first of these, on February 8, 1887, Luke Short and Jim Courtright had a shootout on Main Street that left Courtright dead and Short the "King of Fort Worth Gamblers."

Although the fight did not occur in the Acre, it focused public attention on the city's underworld. A few weeks later a poor prostitute known only by the name of Sally was found murdered and nailed to an outhouse door in the Acre.

These two events, combined with the first prohibition campaign in Texas, helped to shut down the Acre's worst excesses in 1889. More than any other factor, urban growth began to improve the image of the Acre, as new businesses and homes moved into the south end of town.

Another change was the influx of black residents. Excluded from the business end of town and the nicer residential areas, Fort Worth's black citizens, who numbered some 7,000 out of a total population of 50,000 around 1900, settled into the southern portion of the city. Though some joined in the profitable vice trade (to run, for instance, the Black Elephant Saloon), many others found legitimate work and bought homes.

A third change was in the popularity and profitability of the Acre, which was no longer attracting cowboys and out-of-town visitors. Its visible populace was now more likely to be derelicts and the homeless.

By 1900 most of the dance halls and gamblers were gone. Cheap variety shows and prostitution became the chief forms of entertainment. The Progressive Era was similarly making its reformist mark felt in districts like the Acre all over the country.

In 1911 Rev. J. Frank Norris launched an offensive against racetrack gambling in the Baptist Standard and used the pulpit of the First Baptist Church to attack vice and prostitution. Norris used the Acre to scourge the leadership of Fort Worth. When he began to link certain Fort Worth businessmen with property in the Acre and announce their names from his pulpit, the battle heated up.

On February 4, 1912, Norris's church was burned to the ground; that evening his enemies tossed a bundle of burning oiled rags onto his porch, but the fire was extinguished and caused minimal damage. A month later the arsonists succeeded in burning down the parsonage.

In a sensational trial lasting a month, Norris was charged with perjury and arson in connection with the two fires. He was acquitted, but his continued attacks on the Acre accomplished little until 1917. A new city administration and the federal government, which was eyeing Fort Worth as a potential site for a major military training camp, joined forces with the Baptist preacher to bring down the curtain on the Acre finally.

The police department compiled statistics showing that 50% of the violent crime in Fort Worth occurred in the Acre, a shocking confirmation of long-held suspicions. After Camp Bowie was located on the outskirts of Fort Worth in the summer of 1917, martial law was brought to bear against prostitutes and barkeepers of the Acre. Fines and stiff jail sentences curtailed their activities. By the time Norris held a mock funeral parade to "bury John Barleycorn" in 1919, the Acre had become a part of Fort Worth history. The name, nevertheless, continued to be used for three decades thereafter to refer to the depressed lower end of Fort Worth.

Late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries

On March 28, 2000 at 6:15 pm, an F3 (some estimates claim an F4) tornado smashed through downtown, tearing many buildings into shreds and scrap metal. One of the hardest hit structures was Bank One Tower, which was one of the dominant features of the Fort Worth Skyline and which had on its top floor a popular restaurant. It has since been converted to upscale condominiums and officially renamed 'The Tower'. This was the first major tornado to strike Fort Worth proper since the early 1940s.

When oil began to gush in West Texas in the early 20th century, and again in the late 1970s, Fort Worth was at the center of the wheeling and dealing. In July 2007, advances in horizontal drilling technology made vast natural gas reserves in the Barnett Shale available directly under the city, helping many residents receive royalty checks for their mineral rights. Today the City of Fort Worth and many residents are dealing with the benefits and issues associated with the natural gas reserves under ground.

Fort Worth was the fastest growing large city in the United States from 2000-2006 and was voted one of "America's Most Livable Communities."

Geography and climate

Fort Worth is located in North Texas and the Southwest, and the South portion of the United States. Fort Worth is part of the Cross Timbers region; this region is a boundary between the more heavily forested eastern regions and the almost treeless Great Plains. Specifically, the city is part of the Grand Prairie ecoregion within the Cross Timbers.

The DFW Metroplex is the hub of the North Texas region. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 298.9 square miles (774.1 km²). 292.5 square miles (757.7 km²) of it is land and 6.3 square miles (16.4 km²) of it (2.12%) is water.

A large storage dam was built in 1913 on the West Fork of the Trinity River, 7 miles (10 km) from the city, with a storage capacity of 30 billion US gallons (110,000,000 m³) of water. The lake formed by this dam is known as Lake Worth. The cost of the dam was nearly US$1,500,000 - a handsome sum at the time.

Climate

Fort Worth has a humid subtropical climate according to the Köppen climate classification system. The hottest month of the year is July, when the average high temperature is 97 °F (36 °C), and overnight low temperatures average 72 °F (23 °C), giving an average temperature of 84 °F (29 °C). The coldest month of the year is January, when the average high temperature is 55 °F (13 °C), and low temperatures average 31 °F (-1 °C). The average temperature in January is 43 °F (6 °C). The highest temperature ever recorded in Fort Worth is 113 °F (45 °C), on June 26, 1980 and June 27, 1980. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Fort Worth is -6 °F (-21 °C), on December 24, 1989 Because of its position in North Texas, Fort Worth is very susceptible to supercell thunderstorms, which produce large hail and can produce tornadoes. (See recent history above.)

The average annual precipitation for Fort Worth is 34.01 inches (863.8 mm). The wettest month of the year is May, when 4.58 inches (116.3 mm) of precipitation falls. The driest month of the year is January, when only 1.70 inches (43.2 mm) of precipitation falls The average annual snowfall in Fort Worth is very light, only 2.6 inches (66.0 mm)

Fort Worth's all time high temperature was 113 °F (45 °C) on June 26–27, 1980 during the Great 1980 Heat Wave, and the all time low temperature was -1 °F (-18 °C) on December 24, 1989.

Demographics

According to the 2006-2008 American Community Survey, the racial composition of Fort Worth was as follows:

White: 63.0% (Non-Hispanic Whites: 43.4%)

Black or African American: 18.0%

Native American: 0.5%

Asian: 3.5%

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: <0.1%

Some other race: 13.2%

Two or more races: 1.8%

Hispanic or Latino (of any race): 33.8%

Source:

As of the census of 2000, there were 534,694 people, 195,078 households, and 127,581 families residing in the city. The July 2004 census estimates have placed Fort Worth in the top 20 most populous cities (# 19) in the U.S. with the population at 604,538. Fort Worth is also in the top 5 cities with the largest numerical increase from July 1, 2003 to July 1, 2004 with 17,872 more people or a 3.1% increase. The population density was 1,827.8 people per square mile (705.7/km²). There were 211,035 housing units at an average density of 721.4 per square mile (278.5/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 59.69% White, 20.26% Black or African American, 0.59% Native American, 2.64% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 14.05% from other races, and 2.72% from two or more races. 29.81% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 195,078 households out of which 34.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.8% were married couples living together, 14.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.6% are classified as non-families by the United States Census Bureau. Of 195,078 households, 9,599 are unmarried partner households: 8,202 heterosexual, 676 same-sex male, and 721 same-sex female households.

28.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 3.33.

In the city the population was spread out with 28.3% under the age of 18, 11.3% from 18 to 24, 32.7% from 25 to 44, 18.2% from 45 to 64, and 9.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females there were 97.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $37,074, and the median income for a family was $42,939. Males had a median income of $31,663 versus $25,917 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,800. About 12.7% of families and 15.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 21.4% of those under age 18 and 11.7% of those age 65 or over.

Fort Worth stands as the ninth-safest U.S. city among those with a population over 500,000 in 2006.

Cityscape

Architecture

Downtown is mainly known for its Art Deco-style buildings. The Tarrant County Courthouse was created in the American Beaux Arts Design, which was modeled after the Texas State Capitol building. Most of the structures about Sundance Square have preserved their early 20th-century facades.

Natural gas wells

The city of Fort Worth contains over 1000 natural gas wells (December 2009 count) tapping the Barnett Shale. Each well site is a bare patch of gravel in size. As city ordinances permit them in all zoning categories, including residential, well sites can be found in a variety of locations. Some wells are surrounded by masonry fences but most are secured by chain link.

Culture

Building on its western heritage and a history of strong local arts patronage, Fort Worth has, in recent years, begun promoting itself as the "City of Cowboys and Culture."

Arts and Sciences

Theatre Bass Performance Hall, Casa Mañana, Kids Who Care Inc., Jubilee Theater, Circle Theatre, Hip Pocket Theatre

Museums Kimbell Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Sid Richardson Collection of Western Art, Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, Military Museum of Fort Worth, Texas Civil War Museum, Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, Fort Worth Stockyards Museum

Music Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Billy Bob's, Texas Ballet Theater, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (Bass Hall), Fort Worth Opera (Scott Theater), Live Eclectic Music (Ridglea Theater)

Nature Fort Worth Zoo is home to over 5000 animals and has been named as a top zoo in the nation by Family Life magazine, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today and one of the top zoos in the South by Southern Living Reader's Choice Awards; it has been placed in the top 10 zoos in the United States. Fort Worth Botanic Garden, Botanical Research Institute of Texas

Sports and recreation

While much of Fort Worth's sports attention is focused on the Metroplex's professional sports teams, the city has its own athletic identity. The TCU Horned Frogs compete in NCAA Division I Athletics, including the football team that is consistently ranked in the Top 25, the baseball team has competed in the last six NCAA Tournaments and came within a win of making the College World Series in 2009. The women's basketball team that has competed in the last seven NCAA Tournaments. Texas Wesleyan University competes in the NAIA, and were the 2006 NAIA Div. I Men's Basketball champions and three-time National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) team champions (2004–2006). Fort Worth is also home to the NCAA football Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl as well as four minor-league professional sports teams. One of these minor league teams, the Fort Worth Cats baseball team, were reborn in 2001. The original Cats were a very popular minor league team in Fort Worth from the 19th century (when they were called the Panthers) until 1960, when the team was merged into the Dallas Rangers.

TCU Horned Frogs

The presence of Texas Christian University less than five miles (8 km) from downtown and national competitiveness in football, baseball, and women's basketball have sustained TCU as an important part of Fort Worth's sports scene.

The Horned Frog Football Team produced two national championships in the 1930s and remained a strong competitor in the Southwest Conference into the 1960s before beginning a long period of underperformance. The revival of the TCU Football program began under Coach Dennis Franchione with the success of running back LaDainian Tomlinson. Under Head Coach Gary Patterson, the Horned Frogs have developed into a perennial Top-25 contender, and a Rose Bowl winner in 2011. Notable players include Sammy Baugh, Davey O'Brien, Bob Lilly, LaDainian Tomlinson, Jerry Hughes, and Andy Dalton.

Colonial National Invitational Golf Tournament

Fort Worth also hosts one of the most important professional men's golf tournaments every May at The Colonial Country Club. The Colonial Invitational Golf Tournament, now officially known as Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, is one of the most prestigious and historical events of the Tour calendar. The Colonial Country Club was the home course of golfing legend Ben Hogan, who was from Fort Worth. The Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial is considered by the PGA and PGA Tour Professionals as the "Fifth Major".

Professional sports teams

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Motor racing

Ft. Worth has the Texas Motor Speedway (also known as "The Great American Speedway"), a NASCAR track located in the far north part of the city in Denton County. Also, the Indycar Series has raced here since 1997 in a race called the Bombardier Learjet 550.

Amateur sports car racing in the greater Fort Worth area occurs mostly at two purpose-built tracks: Motorsport Ranch and Eagles Canyon Raceway. Sanctioning bodies include Porsche Club of America, National Auto Sports Association (NASA) and the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA).

Economy

Major companies based in Fort Worth include AMR (and subsidiaries American Airlines and American Eagle Airlines), the John Peter Smith Hospital, RadioShack, the BNSF Railway, Gallus Cycles, and Lockheed Martin.

Media

Fort Worth shares its media market with the city of Dallas.

Radio stations

There are many radio stations in and around Fort Worth, with many different formats.

AM

On the AM dial, like in all other markets, political talk radio is prevalent, with WBAP 820, KLIF 570, KSKY 660, KRLD 1080, KVCE 1160 the conservative talk stations serving Fort Worth and KMNY 1360 the sole progressive talk station serving the city. KFXR 1190 is a news/talk/classic country station. Sports talk can be found on KTCK 1310 ("The Ticket"). WBAP, a 50,000-watt clear-channel station which can be heard over much of the country at night, was a long-successful country music station before converting to its current talk format.

There are also several religious stations on AM in the Dallas/Fort Worth area; KHVN 970 and KGGR 1040 are the local urban gospel stations and KKGM 1630 has a Southern gospel format.

Fort Worth's Spanish speaking population is served by many stations on AM:

KDFT 540

KFJZ 870

KHFX 1140

KFLC 1270

KTNO 1440

KNIT 1480

KZMP 1540

KRVA 1600

There are also a few mixed Asian language stations serving Fort Worth:

KHSE 700

KTXV 890

KZEE 1220

Other formats found on the Fort Worth AM dial are Radio Disney KMKI 620, urban KKDA 730, business talk KJSA 1120, country station KCLE 1460.

FM

Non-commercial stations serve the city fairly well. There are three college stations that can be heard--KTCU 88.7, KCBI 90.9, and KNTU 88.1, with a variety of programming. There is also local NPR station KERA 90.1, along with community radio station KNON 89.3. Downtown Fort Worth also hosts the Texas Country radio station KFWR 95.9 The Ranch.

A wide variety of commercial formats, mostly music, are on the FM dial in Fort Worth, also.

Internet radio stations and shows

When local radio station KOAI 107.5 FM, now KMVK, dropped its smooth jazz format, fans set up smoothjazz1075.com, an internet radio station, to broadcast smooth jazz for disgruntled fans.

There are a couple internet radio shows in the Fort Worth area, like DFDubbIsHot and The Broadband Brothers.

Television stations

KDFW - FOX4, WFAA - ABC Channel 8, KXAS - NBC5, KTVT - CBS11, KERA - PBS Channel 13, KTXA - Independent 21, KDAF - MNTV Channel 27, KDAF - CW Channel 33, KFWD - Independent 52, K31GL - TV31.4

Newspapers

Fort Worth has one newspaper published daily, the ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram''. The ''Star-Telegram'' is the forty-fifth most widely circulated newspaper in the United States, with a daily circulation of 210,990 and a Sunday circulation of 304,200.

The ''Fort Worth Weekly'' is an alternative weekly newspaper that serves the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. The newspaper has an approximate circulation of 50,000. The ''Fort Worth Weekly'' publishes every Wednesday and features, among many things, news reporting, cultural event guides, movie reviews, and editorials.

''Fort Worth Business Press'' is a weekly publication that chronicles news in the Fort Worth business community. ''Fort Worth, Texas magazine'' is a monthly publication that highlights the social and cultural life of the city.

The ''Fort Worth Press'' was a daily newspaper, published weekday afternoons and on Saturdays from 1900 until 1975. It was owned by the E.W. Scripps Company and published under the then prominent Scripps-Howard Lighthouse logo. The paper reportedly last made money in the early 1950s. Scripps Howard stayed with the paper until mid 1975. Circulation had dwindled to fewer than 30,000 daily, just more than 10% of that of the Fort Worth Star Telegram. The name ''Fort Worth Press'' was resurrected briefly in a new ''Fort Worth Press'' paper operated by then former publisher Bill McAda and briefer still by William Dean Singleton, then owner of the weekly Azle (Texas) News, now owner of the Media Central news group. The Fort Worth Press operated from offices and presses at 500 Jones street in downtown Fort Worth.

Government

State representation

The Texas Department of Transportation operates the Fort Worth District Office in Fort Worth.

Federal representation

Fort Worth is home to one of the two locations of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. In 1987, construction on this second facility began. In addition to meeting increased production requirements, a western location was seen to serve as a contingency operation in case of emergencies in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area; as well, costs for transporting currency to Federal Reserve banks in San Francisco, Dallas, and Kansas City would be reduced. Currency production began in December 1990 at the Fort Worth facility, with the official dedication taking place April 26, 1991.

Federal Medical Center, Carswell, a Federal Bureau of Prisons prison and health facility for women, is located in the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in Fort Worth. Carswell houses the two female federal death row inmates.

Transportation

The Main mode of transportation throughout Fort Worth is by automobile. However the city does maintain a bus and train service. The Trinity Railway Express is a train service that runs between Fort Worth and Dallas. Public transportation is known as The T.

Roads

Fort Worth is served by four Interstates and two US highways. It also contains a number of arterial streets in a grid formation.

Interstate highways 30, 20, 35W, and 820 all reside within city limits.

Interstate 820 is a spur of Interstate 20 and serves as a beltway for the city, Interstate 30 and Interstate 20 connect Fort Worth to Arlington, Grand Prairie, and Dallas. Interstate 35W Connects Fort Worth to Hillsboro to the south and the cities of Denton and Gainesville to the north.

U.S. Route 287 runs southeast through the city connecting Wichita Falls to the north and Mansfield to the south. U.S. Route 377 runs south through the northern suburbs of Haltom City and Keller through the central business district.

Notable state highways are: Texas State Highway 114 (East-West) Texas State Highway 183 (East-West) Texas State Highway 121 (North-South) (List of Dallas-Fort Worth area freeways)

Airports

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport

Fort Worth Alliance Airport

Fort Worth Meacham International Airport

Fort Worth Spinks Airport

Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth

Rail

Trinity Railway Express - Rail service to Dallas

Amtrak - ''Heartland Flyer'' and ''Texas Eagle'' lines at Fort Worth Intermodal Transportation Center

Public transportation

The T - Bus service for Fort Worth

Molly the Trolley - free bus service encircles Sundance Square.

Trolley to downtown and historic sites by The T

There have been talks of a streetcar system. It should begin operation in the near future.

Walkability

A 2011 study by Walk Score ranked Forth Worth 47th most walkable of fifty largest U.S. cities.

Education

Public libraries

Fort Worth Library is the public library system.

Public schools

Most of Fort Worth is served by Fort Worth Independent School District.

Other school districts that serve portions of Fort Worth include:

Azle Independent School District

Birdville Independent School District

Burleson Independent School District

Castleberry Independent School District

Crowley Independent School District

Eagle Mountain-Saginaw Independent School District

Everman Independent School District

Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District

Keller Independent School District

Kennedale Independent School District

Lake Worth Independent School District

Northwest Independent School District

White Settlement Independent School District

Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts District

The portion of Fort Worth within the Arlington Independent School District contains a wastewater plant. No residential areas are in the portion.

Pinnacle Academy of the Arts (K-12) is a state charter school.

Private schools

All Saints Episcopal School (K-12)

Azle Christian Schools (K-12)

Bethesda Christian School (K-12)

Colleyville Covenant Christian Academy (PreK-12)

Covenant Classical School (K-12)

Fort Worth Academy (K-8)

Fort Worth Country Day School (K-12)

Fort Worth Christian School (K-12)

Key School, Inc. (1-12)

Lake Country Christian School (K-12)

Nolan Catholic High School

St. Paul Lutheran School (K-8)

St. Rita Catholic School (PreK-8)

St. Vincent's School (PreK-8)

Southwest Christian School (K-12)

Trinity Valley School (K-12)

Temple Christian School (K-12)

Trinity Baptist Temple Academy (K-12)

Trinity Christian Academy (K-12)

Hill School of Fort Worth (2-12)

Christian Life Preparatory School (K-12)

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth oversees several Catholic elementary and middle schools.

The Katie Brown School for Special Needs (PreK-12)

The Nazarene Christian Academy (K-12)

Calvary Christian Academy - (K-12) (Accredited)

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seaton Catholic School - (PreK-8)

Institutes of higher education

The Art Institute of Fort Worth

Texas Christian University

Brite Divinity School (TCU)

College of Saint Thomas More

Tarrant County College

Texas Wesleyan University

Texas Wesleyan University School of Law

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Tarleton State University Fort Worth campus

University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth

University of Texas at Arlington Fort Worth campus

Remington College Fort Worth campus

Westwood College Fort Worth campus

The Culinary School of Fort Worth

Sister cities

Fort Worth is a part of the Sister Cities International program and maintains cultural and economic exchange programs with its eight sister cities. Reggio Emilia, Italy ''(1985)'' Nagaoka, Japan ''(1987)'' Trier, Germany ''(1987)'' Bandung, Indonesia ''(1990)'' Budapest, Hungary ''(1990)'' Toluca, Mexico ''(1998)'' Mbabane, Swaziland ''(2004)'' Guiyang, People's Republic of China ''(2010)''

References

Further reading

External links

City Government Website

Convention & Visitors Bureau

Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce

Fort Worth Library

Downtown Fort Worth news and information

Vision FW

Fort Worth Business Press

Fort Worth Architecture

The Jack White Collection of Historic Fort Worth Photos

Fort Worth Sister Cities

Sundance Square

Fort Worthology

West And Clear

Historic Fort Worth materials, hosted by the Portal to Texas History

Dallas/Fort Worth Area Tourism Council

Historic Fort Worth, Inc.

Category:Cities in Texas Category:Dallas – Fort Worth Metroplex Category:Denton County, Texas Fort Worth Category:Tarrant County, Texas Category:County seats in Texas Category:Populated places established in 1849

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Coordinates	56°30′″N84°58′″N
name	Robert Harrill
birth date	February 2, 1893
birth place	Gaffney, South Carolina
death date	June 3, 1972 (aged 79)
death place	Fort Fisher south of Kure Beach, North Carolina
occupation	farmer, mill worker, Works Progress Administration laborer, travelling salesman and hermit
spouse	Katie Hamrick
children	Alvin, Boge, Edward, Luther and Nelli Kate }}

Robert E. Harrill or Robert Harrell, (February 2, 1893 – June 3, 1972), was known as "The Fort Fisher Hermit". He became a hermit in 1955 at the age of 62 after a string of unsuccessful and unsatisfying jobs and a failed marriage. Harrill hitchhiked to Fort Fisher on the North Carolina Coast from Morganton, North Carolina, a distance of 260 miles (418 km). He had been committed to a mental hospital in Morganton by his in-laws, after his wife, Katie Hamrick, left him and asked for a divorce. Harrill apparently walked away from the hospital or made a key from an old spoon and used the key to escape the facility.

Harrill becomes the Hermit

The name "The Fort Fisher Hermit" came from Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, where he settled after leaving the mental institution in Morganton. Soon after arriving at Fort Fisher, Robert Harrill was arrested as a vagrant and sent to his hometown of Shelby by the sheriff's department with the help of the Traveler's Aide society. He returned the following summer and set up a simple home in an abandoned World War II era bunker near the Cape Fear River along a salt marsh. He was able to gather much of the food that he needed from the salt marsh and the nearby oyster beds. Harrill learned many of his survival skills from Empy Hewitt, a true hermit, who also lived in the salt marshes of the Fort Fisher area.

The Fort Fisher Hermit was not a hermit in the truest sense of the word. A hermit (from the Greek ''erēmos'', signifying "desert", "uninhabited", hence "desert-dweller") is a person who lives to some greater or lesser degree in seclusion and/or isolation from society. Harrill was far from isolated, and in fact had many visitors every year. His guest registry, a notebook held down by sea shells, recorded a total of over 100,000 visitors from all fifty states and at least 20 foreign countries. Harrill planted a vegetable garden to supplement his diet (what he grew and what he was able to gather in his surroundings). Visitors also provided the Fort Fisher Hermit with monetary donations that were placed in a frying pan that he left out for just such a purpose.

The Hermit becomes an attraction

Robert Harrill became the second greatest tourist attraction in the state of North Carolina, trailing only the USS ''North Carolina'' in number of visitors. Visitors to Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, Fort Fisher and Southport would routinely take time to visit the man living in the salt marshes. Many of them were simply curious, others were attracted to his wisdom and words, but others went out of their way to harass him or to try to steal his money. There were rumors that he had thousands of dollars hidden somewhere in his bunker. He was also arrested by the local authorities on charges of vagrancy. Each trip to court saw the Fort Fisher Hermit defending himself, most times successfully. A group of men who beat him up and stole his money were convicted on the strength of the hermit's testimony against them, in a trial that saw the hermit serve as both lead prosecutor and star witness.

The Fort Fisher Hermit also attracted a large number of journalists to his bunker with his lifestyle and beliefs. He explained his popularity in the ''New Hanover Sun'' in 1968, " Robert Harrill greeted as many visitors as possible and agreed to pose with them in pictures for a small fee. The Hermit saw each visitor as an opportunity to spread his "common sense" beliefs.

Robert Harrill told his visitors that he was writing a book entitled "A Tyrant in Every Home". His book was a byproduct of his previously stressful life: his mother and two brothers died of typhoid fever when he was a young boy, and his father remarried to a woman that Robert described as "the tyrant in my family. The Hermit's troubled youth and equally troubling adulthood were the primary reasons that he "dropped out" of society nearly ten years before the hippie movement began in full force. Robert Harrill stated that he finally achieved the peace and happiness that he sought for so long. He enjoyed living with nature and said, "My life here goes up and down like the tides of this old sea out here... Only nature determines my existence."

Death

The Fort Fisher Hermit died under "mysterious" circumstances in June 1972. His body was found by a group of teenage boys on an early Sunday morning. It was covered in sand, bloodied, covered in wounds and laid spread eagle on a pile of rubbish. Some people believed that he was killed by a group of rowdy rednecks, others believed that it was a prank gone horribly bad. The New Hanover County coroner ruled that the cause of death was a heart attack. Heart attack remains listed as the official cause of death and an official investigation into a possible murder has never been conducted.

Memorial and legacy

The story and legacy of Robert Harrill lives on today through the efforts of The Hermit Society, founded by Michael Edwards, Edward Harrill, Harry Warren, Gaile Welker and Vergie Harrill. The Fort Fisher Hermit Society was formed on February 2, 1993 (What would have been Robert's 100th birthday) and has members in numerous states. The President and founder is Michael F. Edwards, currently of Satellite Beach, Florida. Since the passing of Edward Harrill, the son of the Hermit, members elected Fred Pickler, a former friend of the hermit, to fill the spot. In the spring of 2007, Pickler co-authored the book "Life and Times of the Fort Fisher Hermit, Through the Lens of Fred Pickler."

The hermit bunker is still standing and can be reached from the Fort Fisher Hermit Trail at Fort Fisher State Recreation Area. The Hermit Society and the "Friends of the Fort Fisher Hermit" work to continue telling his story and a film directed by Rob Hill, ''The Fort Fisher Hermit'', was produced by Wilmington, North Carolina-based Common Sense Films partners Hill, Richard Sirianni and Scott R. Davis in 2004. It has won numerous independent film making awards and airs on American Public Television on PBS.. The film was nominated for a 2007 Mid-South Regional Emmy Award.

External links

''The Fort Fisher Hermit: The Life & Death of Robert E. Harrill'' 2004 documentary by Rob Hill.

''Life and Times of the Fort Fisher Hermit through the Lens of Fred Pickler'' 2009 book by Fred Pickler

References

Category:American hermits Category:New Hanover County, North Carolina Category:1893 births Category:1972 deaths Category:People from Burke County, North Carolina Category:People from New Hanover County, North Carolina Category:Works Progress Administration workers