A Bomber Factory Turned Farmland Into a City RoadyGoat

1941

River Oaks was not created by an oil boom or a railroad. It was created by the need to house thousands of people building bombers. The very year the town incorporated, 1941, the federal government began throwing up an enormous aircraft plant and military airfield right beside it. The plant opened to build B-24 Liberator bombers for World War II, and the airfield next door grew into Carswell. All those plant workers and military families needed somewhere to live, and River Oaks turned into a bedroom community almost overnight. Its population hit about two thousand by the late 1940s and blew past eight thousand by 1960 as Carswell and the aircraft business expanded. That is why so many of the city's older houses look like they came from the same era: most of them did, going up fast in the postwar years to shelter the people who built and flew the planes.

Why It Is River Oaks and Not Castleberry RoadyGoat

1941

When residents voted, unanimously, to incorporate as a village in 1941, you might expect the new town to be called Castleberry, after the old community. But the boundaries they drew reached beyond the traditional Castleberry area, so naming it Castleberry would have left some people out. The leaders went looking for a name that fit everyone, and they took it straight from the land: the mature oak trees all around, and the nearby West Fork of the Trinity River. It became River Oaks Village, and then the City of River Oaks in 1946. Here is the fun part: unlike Houston's famously fancy River Oaks, this name is completely literal. The city really does sit near a river, in country that was once thick with oaks. No marketing, no mansions, just a town named for exactly what was standing there.

It Began With a Cabin, a School, and a Shared Water Well RoadyGoat

1849

River Oaks began when one settler donated land for a school and another donated the water needed to keep it running. Back in 1849, a man named James Ventioner built a log cabin and started a farm that stretched across a big slice of what is now northwest Fort Worth and River Oaks. He gave land for a school near where Castleberry Elementary stands today. A later settler, Zack Castleberry, let the schoolchildren and the surrounding farm families draw from his water well, which in a dry country was no small gift. The little settlement came to be called the Castleberry community, and that name has outlived almost everything else from those years: it still rides on the Castleberry Independent School District. So before there were bomber plants or boulevards here, there was a cabin, a one-room school, and a neighbor's well that the whole community shared.

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.

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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)

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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)

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Choctaw Code Talkers of World War I

1918

During World War I, the 36th nfantry division included Choctaw Nation soldiers training at Fort Bowie. These men fought bravely. When they deployed, their regiments faced difficult losses in October 1918 on the Western Front in France as Central Powers forces intercepted and deciphered Allied artillery orders. Allied officers realized their soldiers had a secret code likely unknown to the Germans–the Choctaw language. Choctaw soldiers transmitted messages in the Choctaw language between headquarters and the front lines. The Germans were never able to decipher Choctaw messages. Within 24 hours of utilizing the Choctaw language, Allied forces managed to turn the tide of the war by keeping communications confidential.
 Because the Choctaw language did not have many of the technical military expressions necessary, a code was developed. Examples included tanampo chito (“big gun”) for artillery, tanamposhi hussatpalhki (“little gun shoot fast”) for machine gun, tanchi nihi achvffa (“one grain of corn”) for first battalion and tvshka (“warrior”) for soldier. In November 1918, the 36th division developed the currently used insignia with a blue arrowhead representing the soldiers from Oklahoma, and a “T” representing the soldiers from Texas. The success of the Choctaw and other native codes during WWI inspired the U.S. to utilize Native American code once again during WWII. The Choctaw code talkers were recognized by the Choctaw Medal of Valor by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (1986), the Knight of the National Order of Merit by the French government (1989), the Lone Star Medal of Valor by the State of Texas (2007), and the Code Talker Recognition Act by the U.S. Government (2008). In 2010, the Code Talker Star was placed on the Texas Trail of Fame.
(2011)


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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

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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

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River Oaks, Texas

Music in River Oaks

Songs About River Oaks

Artists From River Oaks

Rivers & Roads in Song near River Oaks

History of River Oaks

A Bomber Factory Turned Farmland Into a City RoadyGoat

Why It Is River Oaks and Not Castleberry RoadyGoat

It Began With a Cabin, a School, and a Shared Water Well RoadyGoat

Castleberry HS Tornado Damage

Horace Seaver Carswell, Jr.

William John Marsh

Choctaw Code Talkers of World War I

Billy Bob's Texas

Fort Worth Stockyards

Things to Do in River Oaks

Everything Near River Oaks