Historic stockyards

For roughly a century, the great terminal stockyards were the beating heart of the American meat economy. Cattle, hogs, and sheep arrived by rail from the ranching West, were sold by commission firms to the packing houses that ringed the yards, and were slaughtered on site — an industrial machine that fed the nation and built cities around it.

Chicago's Union Stock Yards opened in 1865 and became the most famous in the world, the 'Hog Butcher for the World.' Kansas City, Omaha, St. Joseph, Sioux City, Denver, and the St. Louis-area National Stock Yards followed, each anchoring its own packing district. Nearly all of them closed between 1971 and 2002 as refrigerated trucking and decentralized feedlots ended the terminal-market era.

What remains are landmarks and living heritage: the limestone Union Stock Yard Gate in Chicago, the great Livestock Exchange Buildings of Kansas City and Omaha, the National Western Stock Show in Denver, and — most vividly — the Fort Worth Stockyards, a full Western-heritage district with daily cattle drives and a weekly rodeo. These are the historic stockyards, told from their rise to what you can see today.