WHERE IN AMERICA ARE YOU?
by Randy Karr

You are visiting a historic district located in the heart of a city steeped in rodeo and western history. Once dubbed the “Richest Little Town in the World,” it was the last place along the Chisholm Trail to buy supplies before trail-weary cowboys drove herds of cattle north to railheads in Kansas. The cowhands you see are driving longhorns down a city street lined with century-old storefronts and a hotel that once welcomed rowdy cowboys and cattle barons. Nearby is a coliseum where bull riding and bulldogging, aka steer wrestling, were first introduced as new rodeo events.

W.M “Bill” Pickett, the first black cowboy to be inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, gained fame as a bulldogger in rodeos and Wild West shows. His modus operandi was to leap from a horse, grab the steer by the horns, and twist its neck around until he could sink his teeth into the steer’s lip. The coliseum was also the site of the world’s first indoor rodeo and the first cattle exhibition in the United States to be held under one roof. It has served as a venue for cultural, religious and civic events. Those who made appearances here include former Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Jimmy Carter, evangelist Billy Sunday, Italian Tenor Enrico Caruso, Bob Hope & Doris Day and Elvis Presley. Where in America are you, anyway? Name the Texas city located on a fork of the Trinity River, and name this city’s national historic district, once home to the Swift and Armour meat packing companies, where the world’s only daily cattle drive takes place.

Click on the photo to reveal the answer.

©2010 Randy Karr