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(left) Infamous casino mogel and mobster “Cowboy” Benny Binion in 1975 | Wikimedia Commons (right) Ann Arnold’s book, Gamblers & Gangsters: Fort Worth’s Jacksboro Highway in the 1940s and 1950s. (top right) The Casino Ballroom at over 31,000 square feet was the centerpiece of Casino Park. (bottom right) The Showboat, a major nightclub built in 1937 as a replica showboat along Lake Worth. | Photo courtesy Tarrant County
Fort Worth’s Jacksboro Highway by Billy Huckaby
F
ort Worth earned a reputation as one of the rough and tumble towns in the Old West, and most of the mayhem took place in a part of Fort Worth known as “Hell’s Half Acre.” Located in the general location of today’s Fort Worth Convention Center, “Hell’s Half Acre” had a reputation for alcohol, gambling, and about any other vice a trail-weary cowboy was seeking. Unfortunately, it was also the location of its share of violence, including the famous gunfight between Luke Short and Jim Courtright. Courtright lost. Although “Hell’s Half Acre” gave way to progress in the late 1800s, another part of Fort Worth soon earned a rough and tumble reputation offering all of the vices of “Hell’s Half Acre” and violence on a larger and more organized scale. The Jacksboro Highway became one of the most famous stretches of asphalt that rivaled the Vegas Strip or Bourbon Street in New Orleans. 22
AUTHENTIC TEXAS
FORT WORTH
LAKES TRAIL REGION
