Visitors to the Dallas-Fort Worth area can get a feel for one of Texas' major economic contributors, the cattle industry, by visiting the Fort Worth Stockyards (fortworthstockyards.org) built in 1902. This working livestock exchange and surrounding station town allows visitors onto grounds free of charge to watch live cattle auctions and competitions in the Cowtown Coliseum, browse the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame and catch the Fort Worth Cattle Herd driven through the Stockyards Station streets to the stockyard pens. Certain fee-based attractions, such as tickets to the Stockyards Championship Rodeo or a steak dinner at Billy Bob's Texas, are available for enjoyment as elected and station maps are free of charge in the Stockyards Visitor Center.
An unusual and interesting place to visit for free yearly between March and November in Austin, Texas, is on Congress Avenue where visitors can view bats in this unique urban habitat beneath the Congress Avenue Bridge (no website; Congress Avenue Bridge at Town Lake, Austin, Texas; 512-416-5700). Each night, crowds gather to watch 1.5 million migrated Mexican bats leave their roosts beneath the bridge at twilight to forage and hunt. The city of Austin, in conjunction with the the daily Austin-American Statesman (statesmen.com) and Bat Conservation International (batcon.org), provides visitors with information on bat conservation. The Bat Observation Center provides a viewing platform and is located on the southeast side of the bridge.
When traveling through the northern panhandle of Texas, visitors can stop at the Cadillac Ranch (no website: Interstate 40, Exit 60 South to Route 66) public sculpture and art exhibit in Amarillo to view the eclectic creativity of a San Francisco artists group, The Ant Farm. Wealthy Amarillo-based businessman Stanley Marsh wanted an eye-catching and unusual art display to be created in one of his fields visible from Route 66. The artists decided to plant a row of beaten up, graffiti-covered Cadillacs facing West to pay homage to the 1970s American spirit as a collision of both materialistic consumerism and spiritualistic wonder. In 2011, this free attraction stands half-buried and colorful as part of the passing landscape.
The Beer Can House (no website: 222 Malone, Houston: 713-926-6368) was decorated in 1968 by retired railroad worker John Milkovisch, who thought his suburban home was not as distinguished as it could be. He began by decorating patio space with glittery items such as beer bottle caps, buttons and rocks and eventually found use for 39,000 empty beer cans as siding thanks to his secondary hobby of enjoying one six pack of beer each day. Though John passed away in 1988, his wife, Mary, welcomed visitors until 2002. A folk art preservation society called The Orange Show Foundation purchased the property and in 2011 free weekend tours are available.
