Outlaws, oil, and Texas-sized ambition
Dallas grew from a river-crossing trading post into a banking and oil hub, its skyline a monument to money made from crude rather than cattle — that is Fort Worth's job, thirty miles west. The outlaw era ran through here too: Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow both grew up in West Dallas and are buried in the city they robbed their way out of. Dealey Plaza carries the weight of November 22, 1963, still marked by white X's on the pavement where Kennedy's motorcade passed. The Arts District downtown is the largest in the country and was built almost entirely within the last few decades, a deliberate and expensive rebrand. Deep Ellum's warehouses, once cotton mills and jazz clubs, hold murals and music venues now. The neon Pegasus atop the old Magnolia building has watched all of it since 1934.
