Texas kicked off festivities on Texas Independence Day, to commemorate the 2023 Bicentennial of the Texas Rangers.

As the Rangers approach their 200th year of service, their legend is embodied in the following quote.

When Texas Ranger Captain Bill McDonald was sent to Dallas in the 1890s to prevent a scheduled prizefight, McDonald was greeted at the train station by the city's anxious mayor, who asked: "Where are the others?" McDonald supposedly replied, "Hell! ain't I enough? There's only one prize-fight!" (credit: Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum).

The Texas Rangers are the oldest serving state law enforcement agency in the United States.

Texas Ranger Displays Drones Used For Crime Fighting Operations

Armed with the latest technology, Rangers wear distinctive white cowboy hats, white western-style shirts with silver badges crafted from Mexican Cinco peso coins, and cowboy boots.

The event started at the Dickies Arena on the grounds of the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo with special help from Brad Barnes, the President/General Manager of the Exposition and Livestock Show.  

It concluded on Mule Alley, hosted by Craig Cavileer in the Fort Worth Stockyards at the Hotel Drover.

(L) Bob Sims buying mules to work the Texas oil fields. Mule Alley Fort Worth Stockyards circa 1940.

Artist's aerial drawing of the mule barns at the Fort Worth Stockyards. Date Unknown.

Herd of Texas mules at Mule Alley at Fort Worth Stockyards circa 1939

One note: Mule Alley is where Robert Riggs' great uncle Bob Sims bought mules for use in the East Texas oil fields in the 1930s and 40s.

Those places are steeped in Texas history. Fort Worth, known as “Cowtown,” is where the West began.

And there is nothing more Texan than the Texas Rangers.

You will like this episode if you are a fan of Taylor Sheridan’s TV series Yellowstone or 1883. 

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