Fort Worth is the sixteenth-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just Southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly 300 square miles (780 km²) in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and Wise counties, serving as the seat for Tarrant County. According to the 2010 Census, Fort Worth had a population of 741,206. It has been estimated that by 2030 it will have 1,211,665 residents. The city is the second most populous in the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area.

The city was established in 1849 as an Army outpost on a bluff overlooking the Trinity River. Today Fort Worth still embraces its Western heritage and traditional architecture and design.

In 1876, the Texas and Pacific Railway arrived in Fort Worth causing a boom and transformed the Fort Worth Stockyards into a premier cattle industry and in wholesale trade. The arrival of the railroad ushered in an era of astonishing growth for Fort Worth as migrants from the devastated war-torn South continued to swell the population and small, community factories and mills yielded to larger businesses. Newly dubbed the nickname, "Queen City of the Prairies", Fort Worth supplied a regional market via the growing transportation network.

Fort Worth became the westernmost railhead and a transit point for cattle shipment. With the city's main focus being on cattle and the railroads, local businessman, Louville Niles, formed the Fort Worth Stockyards Company in 1893. Shortly thereafter, the two biggest cattle slaughtering firms at the time, Armour and Swift, both established operations in the new stockyards.

With the boom times came some problems. Fort Worth had a knack for separating cattlemen from their money. Cowboys took full advantage of their last brush with civilization before the long drive on the Chisholm Trail from Fort Worth up North to Kansas. They stocked up on provisions from local merchants, visited the colorful saloons for a bit of gambling and carousing, then galloped northward with their cattle only to whoop it up again on their way back. The town soon became home to Hell's Half Acre, the biggest collection of bars, dance halls and bawdy houses south of Dodge City, Kansas (the northern terminus of the Chisholm Trail), giving Fort Worth the nickname of "The Paris of the Plains."

When oil began to gush in West Texas in the early 20th century, and again in the late 1970s, Fort Worth was at the center of the wheeling and dealing. In July 2007, advances in horizontal drilling technology made vast natural gas reserves in the Barnett Shale available directly under the city, helping many residents receive royalty checks for their mineral rights. Today the City of Fort Worth and many residents are dealing with the benefits and issues associated with the natural gas reserves under ground.

Fort Worth was the fastest growing large city in the United States from 2000-2006 and was voted one of "America's Most Livable Communities."

The city of Fort Worth contains over 1000 natural gas wells (December 2009 count) tapping the Barnett Shale. Each well site is a bare patch of gravel 2–5 acres (8,100–20,000 m²) in size. As city ordinances permit them in all zoning categories, including residential, well sites can be found in a variety of locations. Some wells are surrounded by masonry fences but most are secured by chain link.