Texas Gold - Fort Worth, Texas
Posted by: 
txoilgas
N 32° 47.520 W 097° 20.927
14S E 654619 N 3629435
Located in the famous Fort Worth Stockyards across the street from Billy Bob's the largest Honky Tonk in the world. Donated by T.D. and Sidni Kelsey. Cast in 900 sections.
Waymark Code: WM7GK3
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 10/23/2009
Views: 30
Group of seven longhorn steer with cowboy on horseback riding alongside. Cowboy is turned to look behind. His proper right arm is raised with proper right hand pointing to rear of cattle group. Cowboy wears hat and chaps. Sculpture mounted on concrete slab.
from the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America web site. (
visit link)
Texas Gold - A Memorial to the Texas Longhorn
Planning a trip to Fort Worth? Don't miss the "Texas Gold" monument. This magnificent work of art is the focal point of the two-acre TLBAA property at the corner of North Main and Stockyards Boulevard. A gift of artist and rancher T.D. Kelsey, and his wife, Sidni, to the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America, "Texas Gold" is one of the largest cast bronze statues in the world.
Seven Texas Longhorn steers and an outrider stretch across a base that measures 29 feet by 13.8 feet. Though roughly one-third larger than lifesize, each figure remains anatomically correct and true to scale. Eleven feet tall, the bronze weighs seven tons.
The cattle represent the seven "families" of Texas Longhorns: Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge (WR), Yates, Phillips, Marks, Butler, Wright, and Peeler. Each steer has a heart, just as the cattle themselves did.
Thirty-five studies 1/9 life-size, and seven 1/3 life-size studies, served as models for the monument. It took Kelsey four months to build just the armature for the 10-foot study, which required 20 hours for the patina process alone. The study took up over a ton of clay to sculpt.
For the final work, Kelsey built a track on which the armature could be moved out of the building, affording him the ability to stand back from a distance of two to three blocks to view the work in progress. The work took 18,000 pounds of clay to create. Because of its size and complexity, the bronze was cast in 900 pieces in Loveland, Colorado and later welded together. Following three months of sculpting and another six months to mold and cast, the "Texas Gold" was dedicated on December 8, 1984. It was declared Terry Kelsey Day in Tarrant County, and Kelsey was made an honorary citizen of the State of Texas.