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Fort Worth News
Local news for Fort Worth, TX continually updated from thousands of sources on the web.

Fireworks vendors' business booms

Stockbroker Steve Matzke opened his first roadside fireworks stand last year in Princeton to help make up for the slow financial business.Fireworks sales were so good that he added two more Colby Fireworks sites this year.

Definitions of message board on the Web:

• ("web board" or "forum") - A program on a web site with a form which allows visitors to read and post messages on the website, usually on a specific subject.
   
• Also known as a BBS, message boards are generally thread discussion forums which are placed within a web site for relevant discussions by visitors to the site.
   
• An application that allows users to post and reply to messages from other users and review the flow of a discussion. Also known as a discussion group.
   
• An Internet forum, also known as a message board or discussion board, is a web application that provides for online . Internet forums can be thought of as a contemporary descendent of forums placed on bulletin board systems (widespread in the 1980s and 1990s) as well as existing Usenet news systems. Internet forums are not to be considered fully comparative with bulletin board systems, as BBS's provided for much greater versatility than today's Internet forum (from playing games to having more
   

Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located about 30 miles west of Dallas on the West Fork of the Trinity River. It is the county seat of Tarrant County. As of the 2004 U.S. Census estimates, the city had a total population of 603,337 — now the fifth-largest city within Texas and 19th in the United States. The area codes are 817 and 682. Fort Worth is within the Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan division of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area, a title designated by the U.S. Census, and is colloquially referred to as the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

History
Fort Worth was founded as a military camp in 1849, named after General William Jenkins Worth, during the closure of the Mexican-American War. It was established to protect 19th century settlers from Indian attacks. The fort then became a bustling town when it became a stop along the legendary Chisholm Trail, the dusty path where millions of cattle were driven North to market. Fort Worth became the center of the cattle drives, and later, the ranching industry. The hey day of the cattle drives was the wild era of "Hell's Half Acre," [1] an area of town filled with gambling parlors, saloons, and dance halls. In 1876, the Texas & Pacific Railway connected to Fort Worth and transformed the Fort Worth Stockyards [2] into a premier livestock center. When oil began to gush in West Texas, Fort Worth was at the center of the wheeling and dealing.

Fort Worth is portrayed as more old-fashioned and laid-back than Dallas. Known as "Cowtown" for its rough-and-rowdy roots, Fort Worth still celebrates its colorful Western heritage today and bills itself as "Where the West begins."


Attractions

Cultural District
The Modern (formerly the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth), founded in 1892, is the oldest art museum in Texas. Its permanent collection consists of some 2,600 works of post-war art. In 2002, the museum moved into a new home designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando.
The Kimbell Art Museum houses works from antiquity to the 20th century. Artists represented in its holdings include Caravaggio, Fra Angelico, Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, El Greco, and Rembrandt. The museum's home was designed by American architect Louis Kahn.
The Amon Carter Museum focuses on 19th and 20th century American artists. It houses an extensive collection of works by Western artists Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, as well as an impressive collection of 30,000 exhibition-quality photographs. It also includes works by Alexander Calder, Thomas Cole, Stuart Davis, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Georgia O'Keeffe, John Singer Sargent, and Alfred Stieglitz. American architect Philip Johnson designed the museum's home, including its expansion.
The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame is the only museum in the world that is solely dedicated to honoring women of the American West who have demonstrated extraordinary courage and pioneer spirit in their trail blazing efforts.
The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History - One of the largest Science and History Museums in the Southwest. It includes the Noble Planetarium and the Omni Theater.
Will Rogers Memorial Center - Public entertainment and sports complex.
Casa Mañana - The nation's first theater designed for musicals "in the round."

Downtown

Water GardensSundance Square - Fort Worth's downtown has the Sundance Square, named after the infamous Sundance Kid. The Sundance Square is a 16-block entertainment center for the city. The Square has buildings with tall windows, as well as brick-paved streets and sidewalks, and landscaping that many consider to be very delightful. Many restaurants, nightclubs, boutiques, museums, live theatres, and art galleries are in the Square.
Fort Worth Water Gardens - A 4.3 acre/1.74 ha contemporary park that features three unique pools of water offering a calming and cooling oasis for downtown patrons. The gardens have been temporarily closed due to several accidental drownings.
Fort Worth Convention Center - a 11,200 seat multi-purpose arena.
Bass Performance Hall - Bass Hall is the permanent home to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Texas Ballet Theater, Fort Worth Opera, and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and Cliburn Concerts.

Fort Worth Stockyards Historic District
The stockyards offer a taste of the old west and the Chisholm Trail at the site of the historic cattle drives and rail access. The District is filled with restaurants, clubs, gift shops and attractions such as daily longhorn cattle drives through the streets, historic reenactments, the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame and Billy Bob's, the world's largest country and western music venue.


Parks District
Fort Worth Zoo - Ranked one of the top 10 best zoos in the United States.
Fort Worth Botanic Garden - The oldest botanic garden in Texas, with 21 specialty gardens and over 2,500 species of plants.
Fort Worth Japanese Garden
Log Cabin Village - A collection of authentic Texas log cabins dating from the 1850s.

Other
The Tandy Center Subway, based in the Tandy Center, operated in Fort Worth from 1963 to 2002. The 0.7-mile long subway was the only privately operated subway in the United States.
La Gran Plaza de Fort Worth - is a repositioning of the original shopping mall in the area known more recently as Fort Worth Town Center (but was first dubbed 'Seminary South'). The Center was built on a dry lake bed on the South side of Downtown. La Gran Plaza is being designed in response to the changing demographics of the region. It provides for supermarkets, cinemas, and a Lienzo Charro, a Mexican Rodeo and Concert venue arena.
Trinity Trails - A network of over 35 miles of pedestrian trails along the Trinity River.
 

Economy

Skyline of Downtown Fort Worth
Alcon, American Airlines, Americredit, Bombay Company, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, Carter & Burgess, Pier 1 Imports, Freese and Nichols Inc, Quicksilver Resources, Radio Shack, and XTO Energy are headquartered in Fort Worth. FUNimation is headquartered in nearby North Richland Hills.

Other major employers include Bell Helicopter Textron, Lockheed Martin, Miller Brewery, and Motorola.


Transportation
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport - The largest aviation facility in Texas; Located between Dallas and Fort Worth.
Fort Worth Alliance Airport
Fort Worth Meacham International Airport
Trinity Railway Express - Rail service to Dallas
Amtrak - Heartland Flyer & Texas Eagle lines
Free trolley to downtown and historic sites
The T - Bus service for Fort Worth
See also List of Dallas-Fort Worth area freeways

Education
Texas Christian University
Texas Wesleyan University
University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth
The University of Texas at Arlington, Fort Worth campus
Tarrant County College
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Sports
Fort Worth is home to the Fort Worth Cats, a minor league baseball team in the Central Baseball League, and the Fort Worth Brahmas, a minor league ice hockey team in the Central Hockey League. An expansion NBDL franchise will begin play in the 2005-06 season. Local off-road bicyclists find ride partners and trail information at the Cowtown Area Mountain Bike Association [3].


Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 774.1 km² (298.9 mi²). 757.7 km² (292.5 mi²) of it is land and 16.4 km² (6.3 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 2.12% water.

A large storage dam was built on the West Fork Trinity River, 7 miles from the city, with a storage capacity of 30 billion US gallons (110,000,000 m³) of water. The cost of the dam was nearly $1,500,000.


Demographics
As of the census2 of 2000, there are 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 603,337. 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. [4] The population density is 705.7/km² (1,827.8/mi²). There are 211,035 housing units at an average density of 278.5/km² (721.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 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 are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 195,078 households out of which 34.7% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.8% are married couples living together, 14.7% have a female householder with no husband present, and 34.6% are non-families. 28.6% of all households are made up of individuals and 7.7% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.67 and the average family size is 3.33.

In the city the population is 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 are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 31 years. For every 100 females there are 97.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 94.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $37,074, and the median income for a family is $42,939. Males have a median income of $31,663 versus $25,917 for females. The per capita income for the city is $18,800. 15.9% of the population and 12.7% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 21.4% of those under the age of 18 and 11.7% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.