Irving Travel
Dallas
Contrary to popular belief, there's no oil in glitzy, status-conscious DALLAS . Since its foundation as a prairie trading post, by Tennessee lawyer John Neely Bryan and his Arkansan friend Joe Dallas in 1841, successive generations of entrepreneurs have amassed wealth here through trade and finance, using first cattle and later oil reserves as collateral. One early group of European settlers of the 1850s a group of French intellectuals and artists known as the La Reunion co-operative had to pack up and move on after a series of summer droughts and a harsh winter; the few who stayed would include a future mayor of Dallas. The city still prides itself on their legacy of arts and high culture.
The power of money in Dallas was demonstrated in the late 1950s, when its financiers threw their weight behind integration. Potentially racist restaurant owners and bus drivers were pressured not to resist the new policies, and Dallas was spared major upheavals. The city's image was, however, catastrophically tarnished by the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, and it took the building of the giant Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in the 1960s, and the twin successes of the Dallas TV show and the Cowboys football team in the 1970s to restore confidence. After a slump in the late 1980s, the Cowboys are back in the big time.
Competitive with Houston, and smug about its cowtown neighbor Fort Worth, Dallas boasts of its ''sophistication'' and its ''old'' wealth. For all that, the stuffiness is tempered by a typically Texan delight in self-parody, and there's still fun to be had if you know where to look especially in the alternative Deep Ellum district, with its superb restaurants and nightlife.
Fair Park
Not far southeast of Deep Ellum, Fair Park , a gargantuan Art Deco plaza bedecked with endless Lone Stars, was built to house the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936, and hosts the annual State Fair of Texas, the biggest event of its kind in the US. Among its plethora of fine museums are the Dallas Museum of Natural History (daily 10am5pm; tel 214/421-DINO, www.dallasdino.org ; $6.50), which boasts reconstructions of the 20,000-year-old "Trinity River Mammoth" and a lagoon nature walk; the hands-on Science Place (MonSat 9.30am5.30pm, Sun 11.30am5.30pm; $7.50; tel 214/428-5555, www.scienceplace.org ), which sets out to teach kids and adults about physics and dinosaurs and the like, hosts lively lavish temporary exhibits, and has its own IMAX screen ($6.50); and the Dallas Aquarium (daily 9am5pm; $3; tel 214/670-5656, www.dallas-zoo.org ).
The Women's Museum (Tues 10am9pm, WedSun 10am5pm; $5), is the latest addition to a collection of museums in Fair Park. Young girls will likely benefit the most from the rah-rah attitude on display, from the Electronic Quilt a video project highlighting achievements in women's history to the Wall of Words, featuring inspirational quotes from female leaders. The nearby AfricanAmerican Museum (TuesFri noon5pm, Sat 10am5pm, Sun 15pm; suggested donation $2; tel 214/565-9026) features a superb collection of folk art in its permanent collection,complete with detailed biographies of the artists responsible. These include Clementine Hunter, a Louisiana field hand who used materials left over by artists visiting the wealthy plantation where she worked; Charles Williams, known as Artist Chuckie, from Shreveport, Louisiana, who was "discovered" in 1989 when a neighbor's house burned down and he refused to leave his mother's home until his 700 paintings were brought out; and the real stand-out, Bessie Harvey, who died in 1994. She worked with found pieces of wood, spray-painting them and sticking on other materials to produce scenes such as the extraordinary Jonah and the Whale and Two Heads Are Better Than One . Changing exhibits here focus primarily on African art.
The centerpiece of the park, however, has to be the magnificent Hall of State Building , an Art Deco treasure of bronze statues, blue tiles, mosaics and murals, with rooms decorated to celebrate the different regions of Texas. The park also holds the Cotton Bowl stadium (tel 214/638-BOWL, www.swbellcottonbowl.com ), home of the annual college football classic, while for three weeks in October, Fair Park spills over with more than three million revelers enjoying the riotous State Fair (tel 214/565-9931, www.texfair.com ) itself.
Southfork Ranch
The former TV home of the Dallas soap's wheeling-and-dealing Ewing clan, Southfork Ranch (daily 9am5pm; $7.95) lies about 25 miles northeast of Dallas, beyond I-75 at 3700 Hogge Drive, in Parker. Having lain dormant for two years from 1991, it was purchased by a private firm and has since been kitted out as a convention center-cum-Western mini-theme park, with a museum in which you can see the gun that shot JR and Jock Ewing's original 1978 Lincoln Continental. There are also plenty of Stetson-dominated giftshops and Miss Ellie's Deli . The Ranch House itself is surprisingly small all the show's interior scenes were shot in California, and the exterior views used a very wide-angled lens. Most recommended for those very serious about their kitsch.