This Fort Worth museum dedicated to forgotten cowboys of color has found a new home
The National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum, which is dedicated to telling the stories of the diverse men and women on the western frontier, has a new home.
The museum was located on 2029 N. Main St. and is now at 2201 Dottie Lynn Parkway, Suite 115, on Fort Worth’s east side.
Last year, Jim and Gloria Austin, the owners of the museum, said the museum was in danger due to the high cost of rent at its location near the Stockyards.
After looking for space in Arlington and downtown Fort Worth with no luck, a friend of Jim’s who is a real estate broker informed him of the space off Dottie Lynn Parkway. The location is about 10 minutes from attractions in Arlington such as the planned the National Medal of Honor Museum, Six Flags Over Texas, and AT&T Stadium. It provides better access to more customers, Jim Austin says.
The new location reduced the museum’s rent from $8,600 to about $4,100 a month, though the size of the museum was decreased from 4,000 square feet to 2,800 square feet, requiring some adjustments in exhibits. The museum is in a single-story office building with more parking space than its prior location.
The new location allows the museum to keep its most vital artifacts and provides access for a larger audience, Austin said.
“Our visibility in our message is 20 times bigger for us than being in the outskirts of the stockyards,” Austin said. “We were never in the Stockyards, we were in the historic area. We were in the suburbs of the Stockyards, so we never got that feel of inclusion. So now, in dealing with the history of the forgotten cowboys, now we can talk to tons of people about what we’re doing.”
The Austins have loaned their Tuskegee Airmen collection to the Tuskegee Airmen Texas State Veterans Home to be displayed there due to the reduction in space at the museum. They are looking for a home for 15 general black and white cowboy photos.
The 130 names and pictures from the Cowboys of Color Hall of Fame room at the old location have been digitized and now will be featured on a TV screen to save space.
The museum still includes its exhibit on Bass Reeves, who was one of the earliest Black deputy U.S. marshals west of the Mississippi River and is featured on a Taylor Sheridan show called “Lawmen: Bass Reeves.” Parts of the show were filmed close to Fort Worth, and it just finished airing on Paramount Plus.
The museum’s Buffalo Soldiers and Indigenous Americans exhibits also remain.
A 100 for $1,000 fundraising campaign — which seeks 100 people to each donate $1,000 — has begun to improve the museum’s preservation efforts, expand its visibility and contribute to its initiatives and programming.
Admission to the museum is $15 for adults between 19 and 64 years old, and $12 for people 65 and up, and those 4 to 18 years old. Admission is free for active-duty military personnel and their families.
