Cowboy hats paired with a tailored suit, live country music and two-step dancing – it’s not Yellowstone, it’s Fort Worth, Texas.
America’s fastest-growing city is embracing Western mania in hopes the culture will entice more residents.
With her sights set on reliable infrastructure, crime, homelessness and creating more public parks, Mayor Mattie Parker is focusing on expansion without losing Fort Worth’s character.
Fort Worth continues to be an incredibly unique city that takes great pride in our Western heritage.
“And the timing couldn’t be better because of all the fanfare and frenzy Yellowstone and 1923.’
Mayor Mattie Parker is focused on expanding, but not compromising Fort Worth’s culture
The western features of the city attract people from all over America
Mania created by shows like Yellowstone and 1923 is driving the population
Created by writer Taylor Sheridan who grew up in Fort Worth, the shows have given the area a new edge.
‘Welcome to the West’ is the town’s slogan – a welcoming feel for Americans looking to move outside the mainstream.
While larger subways struggle to bounce back after the pandemic, Parker’s chance to get on the board isn’t lost.
“How you respond to a mental health crisis looks different in 2023 than it did in 1985, and it should, and we have a department that focuses on that,” she said.
“If you’re not a safe city, nobody wants to live there. I mean, look at San Francisco now.’
Her work is getting noticed, with 50,000 people flocking to Fort Worth last year, making it the 13th largest city in the country.
Fort Worth has a reputation as a destination for the oil and gas, aerospace, and defense industries, while Dallas is considered a white-collar business center specializing in financial services and real estate.
In June 2022, Caterpillar announced it would move its headquarters from Illinois to Irving – the fifth largest city in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area and not far from the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.
A Fort Worth Police Department officer patrols the Fort Worth Stockyards on horseback
Fort Worth has a reputation as a destination for the oil and gas, aerospace and defense industries.
The craze surrounding Western culture coincided with the popularity of the TV show Yellowstone
Showrunner Sheridan (pictured) filmed much of his 1883 spin-off series at his Four Sixes Ranch
According to Todd Burnette, general manager of real estate firm JLL, a $2.3 billion explosion of construction projects is in development or in the early stages of pre-planning.
Real estate agents who have traded old farmhouses for decades say unprecedented demand and increasingly limited supply are driving land costs to new heights.
These colossal farms are not only a safe investment, but also provide private playgrounds for their modern owners.
“In recent years, the ranch market has gone crazy,” says Hunter Harrigan, whose father Dave Harrigan founded the Harrigan Land Company some 30 years ago.
“People no longer buy these farms necessarily for what income they can produce, but for long-term appreciation,” he told DailyMail.com.
The farm craze also coincided with the explosion in popularity of Yellowstone, which became the most popular program on cable TV last year.
Showrunner Sheridan filmed much of his spin-off series 1883 at the Four Sixes Ranch, which he purchased himself in January 2022 for approximately $350 million along with a group of other investors.
The historic ranch has served as the backdrop for a number of his shows, as well as being one of the largest and most prestigious ranches in the country.
Four Sixes Ranch in Texas is one of the largest and most prestigious ranches in the country
Four Sixes measures approximately 20 miles north to south and 12 miles east to west
There are about 20 full-time cowboys working on Four Sixes, who traditionally traded cattle and now also horses
Located in the Rolling Plains of West Texas, Four Sixes is nearly the size of Los Angeles at approximately 270,000 acres. Within it are several rivers, spanning miles, as well as its own water filtration plant.
“It’s three different farms that were all sold to the same buyer — to Taylor Sheridan and his group,” said Sam Middleton, Chas’s third-generation owner. S. Middleton and Son, a broker for the seller of the farms.
“It’s hard to say what one ranch sold for because it was cash for all three ranches,” he told DailyMail.com.
“Four Sixes was about 143,000 acres, then you had the Dixon Creek, 116,000 acres, and then the Frisco Creek ranch was a little under 10,000, so all together it was 267,000,” he said.
According to Harrigan, water and mineral rights are critical to someone in the market for a farm and can greatly increase value.
“In most Western states, minerals and water are a separate domain,” he said. “If you can find a ranch where the mineral rights are intact, you gain more control over your land and it becomes more valuable.”