Arlington Heights, Texas

Everything Arlington Heights is known for

0 songs mention this city 6 artists from here

Music in Arlington Heights

Rivers & Roads in Song near Arlington Heights

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Arlington Heights.

History of Arlington Heights

The Cullen Davis Mansion Shootings — Fort Worth, Texas, 1976 RoadyGoat

1976

Fort Worth, August second, nineteen seventy-six. Just after midnight, a man dressed in black walked through the darkened Cullen Davis estate and opened fire. Four people were shot. Twelve-year-old Andrea Wilborn died in the basement. A family friend named Stan Farr died near the door. Priscilla Davis — shot through the chest — staggered bleeding to a neighbor's house and told police the shooter was her estranged husband, Cullen Davis, one of the wealthiest men in Texas. Davis was arrested and tried for capital murder. He hired the most expensive defense team in state history. The jury acquitted him. He was tried a second time for an unrelated murder-for-hire plot. Acquitted again. Cullen Davis became a born-again Christian, sold the mansion, and donated millions to evangelical causes. He is still alive. The house is still standing.

The Ridglea Bowl: The Cold Case That Haunted Fort Worth for 46 Years RoadyGoat

1974

On the night of February 17, 1974, 17-year-old Carla Walker was abducted from the parking lot of the Brunswick Ridglea Bowl, a bowling alley that stood here by the Benbrook traffic circle on the west side of Fort Worth, Texas. A junior at nearby Western Hills High School, she had been out with her boyfriend after a Valentine's dance. Her body was found three days later in a culvert near Benbrook Lake, a few miles to the southwest. The case went unsolved for 46 years until, in 2020, advanced DNA testing by the Texas lab Othram identified her killer; Glen Samuel McCurley Jr. pleaded guilty in 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison. The bowling alley later became an ice rink and then the Cendera Center. (Source: Wikipedia, 'Murder of Carla Walker.')

RoadyGoat → · 3.4 mi away

Carswell Field - Where the Cold War Took Flight RoadyGoat

1941

This airfield exists because of a handshake between a aircraft company and the U.S. Army. In 1941, six months before Pearl Harbor, Consolidated Aircraft proposed building a massive bomber plant on the flat prairie west of Fort Worth and asked the Army to build an airfield right next door. President Roosevelt approved 1.75 million dollars on June 16, 1941, and construction started immediately. The location was chosen for its wide-open terrain, room for long runways, and rail access. A dedicated Bomber Spur railroad line was built to feed raw materials into what became Air Force Plant Number 4. By May 1942, the factory was rolling out B-24 Liberators, and the airfield, then called Tarrant Field, was training heavy bomber crews for the war in Europe and the Pacific. After the war, Consolidated, now Convair, retooled the plant for the B-36 Peacemaker, the largest mass-produced piston-engine aircraft ever built. Its wingspan stretched 230 feet. It could carry a nuclear weapon to any target on the globe and return without refueling. The base was renamed Carswell Air Force Base in 1948, honoring Major Horace Carswell Jr., a Fort Worth native who earned the Medal of Honor in 1944 for staying at the controls of his crippled B-24 over the South China Sea so his crew could bail out. He died in the crash. During the Cold War, Carswell was Strategic Air Command's crown jewel, home to the 7th Bombardment Wing. The whole town of White Settlement grew up around the base and the plant. In 1994, the Air Force closed the base during BRAC realignment, but the Navy took it over as a joint reserve facility. Lockheed Martin still builds F-35 fighter jets in the plant next door. The runways that launched nuclear bombers now serve reservists and Guard units from all branches.

4.0 mi away

William John Marsh

1904

(June 24, 1880 - Feb. 1, 1971) Born near Liverpool, England, William John Marsh was an accomplished organist and musician when he came to Fort Worth in 1904 to enter the cotton business. In addition to his bookkeeping work, he served as organist and choirmaster for two area churches and one synagogue, and as choral director and Professor of Organ at Texas Christian University. He also composed over 100 pieces of music. In 1929, his composition "Texas, Our Texas" won in competition to become the official state song. Marsh died in Fort Worth at the age of 90. (1985)

Horace Seaver Carswell, Jr.

1916

Major, United States Army Air Corps Horace Seaver Carswell, Jr. was born on July 18, 1916, to Horace S. and Bertha Rea Carswell of Fort Worth. He attended North Side High School where he excelled in athletics. Graduating in 1934, Carswell entered Texas A&M College and later transferred to Texas Christian University, where he lettered in football and baseball and graduated with a degree in Physical Education in 1939. In 1940, Carswell enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a Flying Cadet. He undertook Primary Flight Training in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and at Randolph Field (San Antonio), and Advanced Flying Training at Kelly Field (San Antonio). Upon receiving his wings in November 1940 he served at Randolph Field and Goodfellow Field (San Angelo) where he met and later married Virginia Ede in October 1941. Two months later the U.S. entered World War II. Carswell served in stateside assignments until April 1944, when he was transferred to the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations and to the 374th Bombardment Squadron, 308th Bombardment Group. Major Carswell commanded a unit of radar-equipped B-24J bombers at Liuchow, China. On October 26, 1944, he led a nighttime interdiction mission over the South China Sea. While attacking an enemy convoy, his aircraft was severly damaged by Japanese anti-aircraft fire. Carswell nursed his aircraft to the China coast where he ordered his crew to parachute to safety. When two of his crew could not bail out, he selflessly remained with his aircraft, searching for a spot to land until the damaged plane crashed into a mountainside. Carswell was posthumously awarded the medal of honor, which was presented to his wife and young son. In 1948, his remains were repatriated and buried in Fort Worth. That same year, Army Air Field was renamed Carswell Air Force Base in his honor. Its airstrip is still officially named "Carswell Field."		(2016)

Historical Marker → · 3.0 mi away

Bank One Tower Tornado

2000

F3 tornado climbed the 35-story Bank One Tower on March 28, 2000, blowing out nearly every pane of glass above the third floor. Building sat empty for almost five years before being converted to luxury residential.

Local Knowledge → · 3.6 mi away

Castleberry HS Tornado Damage

2000

F3 tornado tracked NE through west Fort Worth, destroying Castleberry High School's field house and damaging the River Oaks / Westworth / Linwood neighborhoods before climbing the Bank One Tower downtown. Local lore: former student Steven Brown told a TV news crew the wreckage 'looked like a convertible,' a quote he never lived down.

Local Knowledge → · 3.8 mi away

Billy Bob's Texas

1981

Billed as the "World's Largest Honky-Tonk" and located in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards district, Billy Bob's Texas, which comprises a total interior space of 100,000 square feet, along with twenty acres for parking, is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the state. Many of the brightest stars in country music have played on its stage. In addition to nightly musical performances, Billy Bob offers live bull riding, dancing, drinking, games, and more to a capacity crowd of 6,000. Billy Bob's has been nominated numerous times and, as of 2011, had won eight titles as the country music "Club of the Year" by the Academy of Country Music. The Country Music Association also has recognized the nightclub with the "Club of the Year" title three times. Billy Bob's Texas was the brainchild of Texas A&M University graduate and professional football player Billy Bob Barnett. Joining Barnett in the venture was nightclub owner Spencer Taylor, a former car salesman. The two chose an abandoned 100,000-square-foot department store that had once been an open-air cattle barn in the Fort Worth Stockyards. The original structure was built in 1910 and underwent several transformations through the years. Additional animal stalls and an auction ring were constructed in 1936, and during World War II the Globe Aircraft Corporation used the building as an airplane factory. With the additional help of investment partners Thomas and Mitt Lloyd, Barnett renovated the facility and opened the doors for business on April 1, 1981. Following on the heels of the early 1980s Urban Cowboy craze and subsequent country music boom, Billy Bob's Texas was an instant hit. The first week featured Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers , Waylon Jennings , Janie Fricke, and Willie Nelson. A host of others followed, including rockers ZZ Top and the Beach Boys and country music legends Marty Robbins and Ernest Tubb . Billy Bob's Texas helped foster many new musical acts. As the club's marketing director, Pam Minick, wrote, "Billy Bob's became the place for country music musicians to hone their skills, build a fan following, and possibly secure a recording contract." George Strait, for example, played first as an opening act at Billy Bob's. Rick Treviño placed in a talent contest at the nightclub. Ty Herndon was a member of the house band, Southern Thunder. However, problems eventually beset the nightclub. In the late 1980s, country music, Billy Bob's biggest draw, declined in popularity. Financial mismanagement and unrealized projects drained the nightclub. Billy Bob's Texas was bankrupt, and on January 8, 1988, it closed, causing great loss to the tourism industry of Fort Worth, especially the Stockyards district. Soon afterward, however, entrepreneur Holt Hickman, a Fort Worth native, sought to revive the Stockyards. Hickman's long-time friend and businessman Steve Murrin encouraged him to reopen Billy Bob's Texas. Hickman and Murrin, along with Donald K. Jury, an original Billy Bob's Texas investor, reopened the place on November 28, 1988. In February 1989, Billy Minick became a partner and manager of the nightclub. He eventually became CEO, with his wife Pam as head of marketing. When Billy Bob's Texas reopened, new headliners took the stage, including Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, and Texans LeAnn Rimes and Clint Black. As country music regained popularity, Billy Bob's focused on native talent, especially musicians who had crossover appeal. Such Texas acts as Robert Earl Keen and Pat Green became some of the club's biggest draws. The high-energy environment and close setting of Billy Bob's Texas allowed these performers to interact more with their fans. According to Pam Minick, most stars know they have made it when they have played the main stage at Billy Bob's. The club has a Handprint Wall of Fame that displays impressions of every performer who has played onstage. Many artists have recorded live at Billy Bob's. Among the first to do so were Chris LeDoux and D

Tsha Handbook → · 4.1 mi away

Fort Worth Stockyards

1876

The Fort Worth Stock Yards were officially incorporated on March 23, 1893, and the corporation was dissolved on May 31, 1944, but those who purchased it at the later date continued operations under the same name until November 1, 1981, when they leased the facilities to a company that continued using the same name. The Fort Worth livestock market became the largest in Texas and the Southwest, the biggest market south of Kansas City, and ranked between third and fourth consistently among the nation's large terminal livestock markets for five decades, from about 1905 to the mid-1950s. Texans started calling Fort Worth "Cowtown" soon after the Civil War , when drovers began herding cattle from South Texas northward to connect with the Chisholm Trail in Indian Territory and stopping in Fort Worth for supplies. Not until the Texas and Pacific Railway arrived on July 19, 1876, did promoters build pens to hold cattle, but business leaders of Fort Worth already dreamed of packing plants and stockyards to make their community a permanent focus of the cattle industry. By 1886 four stockyards had been built near the railroads. Businessmen chartered the Union Stock Yards on July 26, 1887, and opened their 258-acre facility north of the Trinity River in midsummer 1889. They also chartered a packing company. Local interests invited Boston capitalist Greenleif W. Simpson to visit, with the hope that he would invest. Simpson, with a half dozen Boston and Chicago associates, incorporated the Fort Worth Stock Yards Company in West Virginia because of more favorable tax laws there, and purchased the Union Stock Yards and the Fort Worth Packing Company in April 1893. A neighbor of Simpson in Boston, Louville V. Nile, bought half the shares. The investors struggled because of the financial panic of 1893 and other problems, but in 1896 the company began a fat-stock show that has survived to the present as one of the largest livestock shows in the nation, the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show . In 1896 stockyard owners also began a market newspaper that still exists today under independent ownership as the Weekly Livestock Reporter , the largest livestock newspaper in the Southwest. In 1897–98 the company, in connection with the Bureau of Animal Industry, gained nationwide attention by experimenting with cattle dipping to kill ticks ( see TEXAS FEVER ). An agreement Simpson and Niles made in 1902 with Armour and Swift brought in two of the nation's largest meatpackers, which constructed modern plants adjacent to the stockyards. In a stock reorganization, each packer received a third interest in the stockyards company, and Simpson, Niles, and smaller investors retained a third. In exchange for stock and land on which to build their plants, the packers agreed that each animal they slaughtered would pass through the stockyards at a standard fee. Boom years followed for the Fort Worth Stock Yards Company after the arrival of Armour and Swift. Immigrants came from Central Europe to work in the plants and settled in a community that stockyard officials incorporated in 1902 under the name North Fort Worth. The first decade of the twentieth century saw great growth in livestock-related industries in Fort Worth-grain elevators, livestock-pharmaceutical companies, and other meatpackers. The Fort Worth Stock Yards Company constituted the hub around which everything else revolved. The reorganized company spent $125,000 for a two-story Spanish-style exchange building and constructed brick-floored pens with a capacity of 24,500 animals. By 1905 the Fort Worth market had grown to fifth in the nation. In 1906 the calf market at Fort Worth ranked second only to Chicago. Because of rapid growth, the yards kept expanding. In March 1908, when a new $175,000 coliseum for the fat-stock show opened, the company hosted the first cutting-horse contest ever held indoors under electric lights. Population in Fort Worth tripled during the first decade after Armour and

Tsha Handbook → · 4.1 mi away

Things to Do in Arlington Heights

quirky 17.9 mi away
Chewbacca's Grave — May the 4th

May the 4th be with you — and with the Wookiee. Peter Mayhew the seven-foot-three British actor who brought Chewbacca to life in every Star Wars film from 1977…

food 3.9 mi away
Joe T. Garcia's

Joe T opened his little family restaurant behind the packing plant in the Fort Worth Stockyards in 1935. There was no menu. His wife Jessie served whatever she…

historical 4.6 mi away
Billy Bob's Texas

Billy Bob's opened in 1981 in an old cattle barn in the Fort Worth Stockyards and at one hundred twenty-seven thousand square feet it is the largest honky-tonk…

historical 4.6 mi away
Fort Worth Stockyards

Daily cattle drives down the street. Honky-tonks and rodeos in the old West.

historical 14.7 mi away
WWII Marine Glider Base at Eagle Mountain

In 1942 the United States Marines bought 2931 acres of ranchland on Eagle Mountain Lake for a purpose that sounds almost unbelievable now — training pilots to…

quirky 14.7 mi away
The Azle Earthquake Swarm

Starting in November 2013 the ground beneath Azle started shaking and it did not stop for 84 days. Twenty-seven earthquakes rattled windows cracked foundations…

quirky 17.9 mi away
Chewbacca's Grave

The seven-foot-three British actor who played Chewbacca in every Star Wars film from 1977 to The Force Awakens is buried right here at Azleland Memorial Park.…

quirky 23.2 mi away
Springtown Dinosaur Tracks

A family went out hunting arrowheads along Walnut Creek in 2017 and found something about 110 million years older than they expected. Pressed into the creekbed…

Everything Near Arlington Heights

844 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Explore Arlington Heights on the Map