Cattle RaisersÂ
Matt Brockman, the Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo’s publicity director, walked through the renovated Cattle Raisers Museum on May 31 and looked over his past work.
Brockman is a former executive vice-president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, which has its headquarters in Fort Worth. He also is a former executive director of the National Ranching and Heritage Center in Lubbock.
Knowing he had those impressive credentials, officials at the Cattle Raisers Museum in Fort Worth recruited Brockman to help with researching and presenting information that’s artistically displayed throughout the state-of-the-art institution.
The Cattle Raisers Museum, which is on the second floor of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, has undergone a major renovation that’s taken almost seven months. Officials conducted a reception on the evening of May 31 to show it off.
“This museum depicts our way of life in Texas,” Brockman said. “It traces back the identity of anybody that’s been born in Texas or anyone who has moved to Texas in the last generation or the last 50 years. The cattle industry and the origins of the cattle industry is what define us as Texans.
“Sometimes our life has been hard,” Brockman added. “You look can at the photos and sometimes it’s been dry and dusty. It kind of underscores what our people have endured over the past 200 years. So, whether you’re looking at cowboy heading or roping a cow, or a picture of the Swenson Ranch, or Quanah Parker’s headdress, there’s something here that everybody can connect to.”
Brockman stood in a timeline area, which also showcases famous late 1800s cattle drives are a colorful part of Texas history. For example, there’s the late 1860s Goodnight-Loving Trail, which originated in North Texas (Fort Belknap near Newcastle), moved west into New Mexico (Fort Sumner) and then turned north to Denver and Cheyenne, Wyo.
The Cattle Raisers Museum, which originally opened in 1981, closed its doors on Oct. 11 and reopened this weekend with new interactive galleries and exhibits enhancing the stories of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA). The museum’s collections include book and manuscript holdings, historic photographs, oral history interviews, and artifact and educational collections that focus on all aspects of the history of the TSCRA and cattle industry.
The renovations are the first major update for the Cattle Raisers Museum since it opened inside the FWMSH in 2009. An interactive chronological timeline mixed with artifacts and exhibits allows visitors to understand important historical markers beginning in the late 1600s through the present, and will include information on the history of cattle raising in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.
“I remember the old museum and it was really cool, but this is a whole different feel. It does a good job of preserving our heritage and ranching culture,” said Ross Hecox, editor of Western Horseman magazine, which headquarters in Fort Worth. “I think the younger kids who don’t know about this kind of stuff are going to find it interesting just because they’ve got some unique ways of presenting the history and state heritage that we have in the cattle business and ranching in Texas. It has videos and a lot of great memorabilia.”
Many artifacts and photos from the museum’s collection are on display for the first time, including Ken Spain’s saddle collection and Charles Goodnight’s JA Ranch Herd’s “Old Blue” lead steer bell. Exhibits featuring video footage of Texas ranches and livestock and a taxidermy longhorn herd highlight central themes of land stewardship, the significance of water and the value of beef and cattle byproducts.
The addition of interactive games and hands-on activities are expected to captivate an estimated 1 million children who will visit each year. Another new attraction is a virtual clothing booth and animated portraits of various cattle breeds.
“The challenge for us, and I think we got it right this time, was to create a museum that can be appealing to a large number of school children, meaning it’s entertaining, engaging and fun, but also relevant to our constituency,” said Patricia Riley, the museum’s executive director. “There’s so much information here and so many great artifacts that it strikes a great balance. It’s entertaining, but for the people who are cattle raisers, it’s really a great home for their history.”