Oil, Cattle, and Banking: How Texas’s Big Cities Got Their Start

Ask most people what built Dallas, and they’ll say oil. You can thank the Ewings for that. Thanks to J.R. and Ewing Oil on the TV show Dallas, the whole world pictures Dallas as an oil town. Oil certainly played its part in Texas, but the story of the state’s three biggest cities is really three different stories. Fort Worth grew up on cattle, Dallas on cotton and banking, and Houston on oil. Each city’s beginnings still show up in its economy today.

Fort Worth: where the West begins

After the Civil War, Texas had millions of longhorn cattle and not many buyers. Northern cities wanted beef, so cowboys drove herds north along trails like the Chisholm Trail, and Fort Worth became the last major stop to rest and resupply before heading into Indian Territory. That’s how it earned the nickname “Cowtown.”

When the railroads arrived in the 1870s, cattle could ship from Fort Worth instead of walking all the way north. The Fort Worth Stockyards grew into one of the busiest livestock markets in the country, and big meatpacking plants followed in the early 1900s. Today the twice-daily cattle drive down Exchange Avenue is a nod to that history.

Dallas: cotton, railroads, and money

Dallas didn’t have a port, a river you could ship on, or cattle trails. What it had was a spot where two major railroads crossed in the 1870s, right in the middle of rich cotton country. Cotton farmers brought their crops to Dallas to be bought, sold, and shipped, and the banks, insurance companies, and merchants that handled all that money set up shop downtown.

That financial base paid off. In 1914, Dallas was chosen as the home of one of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks. Later, when oil was found in East Texas in the 1930s, Dallas banks became the ones financing much of the oil business, even though the wells weren’t in Dallas.

Houston: oil and the ship channel

The modern Texas oil industry took off in 1901, when the Spindletop well near Beaumont blew in and changed everything. Houston, about 90 miles away, became the place where the oil business organized itself. Oil companies moved in, refineries went up, and the Houston Ship Channel opened in 1914 to bring oceangoing ships straight into the city. Houston has been the center of the energy industry ever since.

Why it still matters

You can still see those roots. Dallas remains a major center for banking, finance, and corporate headquarters. Fort Worth kept its Western identity while growing into a hub for aviation, manufacturing, and logistics. And Houston is still the energy capital of the country.

That mix is a big reason Dallas-Fort Worth has held up so well over the years. When one industry slows down, others keep going. You can see it in the numbers: my look at the region’s 10 largest industries shows how little of the local economy rests on any single sector.

If you’re thinking about a move to Dallas-Fort Worth, I’m happy to help.