Fort Worth Evolving from Cow Town to Hipster City

via: USA TODAY

Longhorn cattle still roam the streets of this historic cow town.

Twice a day, grizzled men wearing authentic-looking hats, scarves and gloves climb atop of horses and slowly walk a herd of about 20 cattle – horns long enough to lance a human heart from 4 feet away – three blocks from the animals' night pens to the day pens, then back again.

It's a touristy spectacle in the city's historic stockyards sponsored by the visitor's bureau and aimed at the busloads of out-of-towners and gaggles of gawking grade-school students on field trips. But it's also a nod to the city's 19-century importance as a major cattle depot, from where thousands of head of cattle each year would slog north to Kansas City through the Chisholm Trail and onto plates in restaurants in Chicago, Boston and Washington.

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