Chair
Michael W. Ritchie
Texas Military Forces Historical Foundation
Panel · Session 7
Cowtown and Space City: Two Paths to the Modern Texas Metropolis
About this event
Texas urban history is frequently examined through cities whose origins are closely connected to Spanish colonization, Mexican Texas, and the Texas Revolution. Houston and Fort Worth offer a different perspective. Although both were founded during the nineteenth century, their rise to metropolitan prominence occurred largely during the twentieth, when transportation systems, natural resources, industrial development, federal investment, and ambitious civic leadership transformed them into two of the state's most important economic and cultural centers. Houston and Fort Worth followed markedly different paths. Houston used the Ship Channel and its growing international port to connect the Texas economy to national and global markets. Oil accelerated that growth, while medical research, the space program, and other scientific and technological institutions helped Houston develop an economy extending far beyond petroleum. The result was a sprawling and increasingly international metropolis whose influence reached well beyond Texas. Fort Worth built its early identity around railroads, cattle, and meatpacking. Oil brought new wealth during the early twentieth century, while World War II military aviation helped establish an aerospace and defense sector that remained central to the city's economy long after the war ended. Transportation, aviation, technology, and corporate development gradually expanded Fort Worth beyond its traditional livestock economy. At the same time, the city deliberately preserved and promoted its Western identity, creating a distinctive combination of "Cowtown" heritage, modern industry, and internationally recognized cultural institutions. Examined together, the two cities demonstrate that there was no single formula for metropolitan growth in twentieth-century Texas. Both benefited from oil, transportation infrastructure, private investment, and government spending, but they used those advantages differently. Houston increasingly presented itself as an international center of commerce, medicine, science, and energy. Fort Worth expanded into aviation, defense, transportation, and technology while maintaining a particularly visible connection to the state's Western traditions. This session will consist of two approximately twenty-five minute papers, followed by a moderated comparative discussion and questions from the audience. The discussion will use the differences between Houston and Fort Worth to explore broader questions about economic development, urban identity, civic ambition, and what it meant for a Texas city to become a modern metropolis.
Participants & presentations
Presenter
Geoffrey Scott Connor, Ph.D.
Independent Historian
From Bayou Port to Global City: The Twentieth-Century Rise of Houston
Dr. Geoffrey Connor will examine the economic and institutional forces that transformed Houston into a major national and international metropolis. The presentation will begin with the development of the Houston Ship Channel and the city's emergence as an international port. It will then consider the importance of oil exploration and the energy industry, which supplied much of the capital, employment, and population growth that drove Houston's twentieth-century expansion. The paper will also explore Houston's ability to build major institutions outside the petroleum industry. The Texas Medical Center, including MD Anderson, established the city as an important center of medicine and scientific research. The Manned Space Center further associated Houston with technological innovation, federal investment, and the national space program. Together, these developments produced a diversified metropolitan economy and helped transform Houston from a regional commercial center into a global city. Connor will also consider how rapid expansion affected Houston's urban identity. Unlike cities defined by a single historic center or dominant cultural image, Houston developed through extensive suburban growth, highways, decentralized business districts, and successive waves of population growth. Its history illustrates how commercial opportunity, technological ambition, and international connections could create a distinctly modern form of Texas urbanism.
Presenter
Richard F. Selcer, Ph.D.
Independent Historian
Cowtown Reinvented: Industry, Aviation, and Identity in Twentieth-Century Fort Worth
Dr. Richard Selcer will examine how Fort Worth repeatedly adapted its economy while preserving the Western identity that made the city distinctive. Railroads, cattle, stockyards, and meatpacking provided the foundations for Fort Worth's early growth and established its reputation as "Cowtown." The discovery and development of oil brought additional wealth, investment, and business activity during the early twentieth century. The presentation will then examine the importance of World War II military aviation in reshaping the city's economy. Aircraft production and military investment helped establish an aviation and defense industry that continued after the war and contributed to the later growth of 3 aerospace manufacturing, commercial aviation, and related technologies. These industries allowed Fort Worth to move beyond its dependence on cattle and oil without entirely abandoning the identity created by them. Selcer will also discuss Fort Worth's effort to combine economic modernization with the preservation of its Western heritage. Stockyards, rodeos, museums, performing arts institutions, and architecture helped the city present itself simultaneously as a center of traditional Texas culture and as a modern metropolitan community. Fort Worth's development therefore raises an important question: did the city preserve an authentic historical identity while modernizing, or did it successfully transform that identity into an economic and cultural asset?