Chemical Education Today
ACS National Meeting
Discovering Dallas–Fort Worth by Paul S. Cohen and Brenda H. Cohen
When Paul and Brenda Cohen aren’t traveling, they can be found at The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ 08628; email
[email protected].
also expanded to include a variety of industries: defense, high technology, and aviation. What To See and Do in the Dallas Area State Fair Park in Dallas Fort Worth Museum of Science was the site of the 1936 Cen- and History tennial Exhibition. Many of the beautiful buildings constructed in the art deco style of architecture known as moderne were left from the exhibition. They now provide space for several museums and for the annual state fair. Some museums in the park have exhibits related to science. The Dallas Museum of Natural History exhibits mounted native animals, plants, and minerals. There are 50 dioramas of Texas flora and fauna. Science Place I and II provides a variety of hands-on exhibits ranging from dinosaurs to a medical gallery to a study of matter. The adjacent planetarium has regularly scheduled sky shows. The complex also has an IMAX theater. Age of Steam Railroad Museum: in Fair Park, P. O. Box 153259, Dallas, TX 75315-3259; 214/428-0101. Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden: 8525 Garland Road, Dallas, TX 75218; 214/327-8263. Dallas City Aquarium: 3400 Fitzhugh, Dallas, TX 75221; 214/670-8453. Dallas Horticultural Center: 3601 Martin Luther King Boulevard, Dallas, TX 75315; 214/428-7476. Dallas Nature Center: 7171 Mountain Creek Parkway, Dallas, TX 75249; 972/296-1955. Dallas Firefighters Museum: 3801 Parry Avenue, Dallas, TX 75226; 214/821-1500. Dallas Museum of Natural History: in Fair Park, P. O. Box 150349, Dallas, TX 75315; 214/421-3466. Dallas World Aquarium: 1801 N. Griffin, Dallas, TX 75202; 214/720-2224. Dallas Zoo/Wilds of Africa: 621 East Clarendon Drive, Dallas, TX 75203; 214/946-5154. Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary: 1 Nature Place, McKinney, TX 75069; 972/562-5566. Main Street Brewing Company: 2656 Main Street, Dallas, TX 75226; 214/939-2337. Mrs. Baird’s Bakery: 5230 East Mockingbird Lane, Dallas, TX 75204; 214/526-7201. Science Place I & II and the Planetarium: in Fair Park, 1318 South Second Avenue, Dallas, TX 75210; 214/ 428-5555.
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Where To Find It in Dallas
Members attending the Spring 1998 ACS Meeting in Dallas will have a double treat available to them: two great Texas cities, Dallas and Fort Worth. These two metropolitan areas, only 31 miles from each other, and the intervening towns of Irving and Arlington, are collectively known locally as the Metroplex. Texas encompasses 267,338 square miles of land with a 624-mile coastline along the Gulf of Mexico. The state has four major geographic zones: the Rocky Mountains, the Great Plains, the Central Lowlands, and the Gulf Coastal Plain. The Metroplex is in the north-central region, flat tableland of the Great Plains zone. This metropolitan area is on the Blackland Prairie, a corridor of land that was once a grass highway and woodland stretching from San Antonio to the Red River. The famous Texas cattle drives of the old West traveled the trails from south Texas to the railheads of Kansas. During the time of the great cattle drives Dallas was on the Preston Trail. Some herds went west from Dallas to join the Chisholm trail in Fort Worth. Today this is a land of wheat fields, woodlands, and skyscrapers. Dallas began in 1841, when John Neely Bryan selected a bluff overlooking the Trinity River to build a trading post because he mistakenly believed that the Trinity River was navigable for trade all the way from the bluff to the Gulf of Mexico. Bryan sold parcels of land and supplies to farm the rich black soil, and ferried immigrants across the river. The community that would one day be the great city of Dallas soon grew to a few hundred souls. Fort Worth, at the other end of the Metroplex, began in 1848 as a military post called Camp Worth. The post’s job was to protect a small group of struggling ranchers from Indian attacks. During the Civil War, Dallas served as a training hub for Confederate soldiers and a manufacturing center for their supplies. The 1870s saw the arrival of the Texas Central Railroad and the Texas Pacific Railroad, with Dallas as the temporary railhead. Thus Dallas grew into an important commercial center for cotton, beef, and produce. For Fort Worth, the 1870s cattle drives brought prosperity, a charter for the city, and the railroads. When oil was discovered just west of the city in 1917 and 1918, Fort Worth became a mecca for wildcatters in search of petroleum deposits. In the 1920s and 1930s the agrarian economy of Dallas expanded to include banking, finance, insurance, and petroleum—with the discovery of oil immediately to the north, west, and east of the city. Industrial manufacture, particularly airplanes, guns, and vehicles, came with World War II. After the war, technology-related industries developed. Today, as these industries grow, so does Dallas. The Fort Worth economy has
Chemical Education Today
ACS National Meeting The Dallas Firefighters Museum displays rare memorabilia of the history of fire fighting from the early days of Dallas to the present. These artifacts include an 1884 horse-drawn steam pumper, the last of this type of equipment used in Dallas, and a 1936 Texas centennial hook-and-ladder truck. The museum also displays a vintage fire station. Age of Steam Railroad Museum exhibits a variety of railroad equipment from the past: sheds, towers, stations, memorabilia, and nine engines—ranging from a steam 1917 ALCO 2-10-0 to a diesel 1969 EMD DDA-40-X that ran on the Union Pacific Rail Road and is one of the world’s largest diesel electric locomotives. Among the many freight and passenger cars on view is a 1895 B & RP Railway bobber caboose. These cabooses were first made in 1854 for the Erie Railroad by cutting a boxcar in half and making two small, wooden, bouncy, four-wheel cabooses. Also on view is a fully restored 1937 dining car from the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. Dallas City Aquarium has more than 4000 aquatic animals. A 10,500 gallon tank features fish of the Amazon River, including the often maligned piranha. On the seven acres of park land that make up the Dallas Horticultural Center there are a two-story tropical conservatory, floral displays, garden for the blind, and a cooling waterfall. Outside of Fair Park there are other sites to see. The Dallas World Aquarium is
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located in a refurbished warehouse in the heart of the city. Among its many exhibits are a shark tank with a walk-through tunnel and living reef tanks. The Dallas Nature Center, on 360 acres of wilderness and mesquite prairie, has six miles of hiking trails, plant nurseries, and regularly scheduled programs. Covering more than 66 acres of land, the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden has blooming flowers, rolling lawns, and a picturesque lake. Among the plants featured here are azaleas, wildflowers, and perennials. The historical DeGoyler mansion is on the grounds and open to the public. Nearby is a nature-lover’s paradise on more than 275 acres, the Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary where birds, snakes, and other animals live freely. The Dallas Zoo/Wilds of Africa displays more than 1400 animals, amphibians, and birds. A monorail ride over the 25-acre Wilds of Africa exhibit permits visitors to see six recreated African habitats inhabited by hundreds of animals. Several Dallas manufacturers invite visitors to watch industrial production. Mrs. Baird’s Bakery tour conducts people through the factory while bread manufacturing takes place. Another tour goes through the microbrewery, Main Street Brewing Company, where visitors can see yeast fermentation during the beer-making process.
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 75 No. 3 March 1998 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
What To See and Do in the Fort Worth Area The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, the oldest museum in Texas, has many hands-on activities and an Omni theater, which is located next to the Noble Planetarium. In the museum’s entrance courtyard a Cretaceous period garden has been created, complete with models of an Acrocanthosaurus and a Tenontosaurus. The museum has exhibits on the history of medicine, the human body, calculators and computers, and rocks and fossils. About 1.5 miles south of the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport is the American Airlines/C. R. Smith Museum. Its main focus is the history of commercial aviation, particularly American Airlines. One of the main exhibits is a restored DC-3. Some of the many artifacts are placed in dioramas. Visitors can see movies in a large-screen theater. The Fort Worth Zoological Park, a tree-shaded setting, has 4400 native and exotic animals. Exhibits include The World of Primates, Flamingo Bay, Raptor Canyon, an aquarium, a herpetarium, a tropical birdhouse, a rain forest, and Asian Falls displaying tigers, sun bears, elephants, and rhinoceroses. At the Fort Worth Botanical Garden visitors can enjoy 114 acres of lush gardens and a Japanese meditation garden with a teahouse and pagoda. Garden highlights include a rose garden, fragrance garden, and 10,000-square-foot conservatory featuring orchids, bromeliads, and tropical trees. The 3500 acres of the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge has hiking and nature trails. Visitors often see buffalo, coyotes, prairie dogs, and many other animals along the trails.
Where To Find It American Airlines/C. R. Smith Museum: 4601 Highway 360, Fort Worth, TX 76155; 817/967-1560 or 800/633-3711. Fort Worth Botanical Garden: 3220 Botanic Garden Drive, Fort Worth, TX 76107; 817/871-7686. Fort Worth Museum of Science and History and Planetarium: 1501 Montgomery Street, Fort Worth, TX 76107; 817/732-1631. Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge: SR 199, Fort Worth, TX 76135; 817/237-1111. Fort Worth Zoological Park: 1989 Colonial Parkway, Fort Worth, TX 76110; 817/871-7050.
in Fort Worth
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