The Feud Between Dallas and Fort Worth

I was reading through a Mobil Travel Guide, looking for info about the South Texas Gulf Coast, among other things.

The Dallas and Fort Worth entries amused me. The description of each town is the type verbiage that can get some Fort Worth people downright cranky. Fort Worth has had a long history of being in the shadow of Dallas. There is a lot of overcompensating due to this. Go here and read some examples of some in Fort Worth's attitudes towards Dallas and towards their own town.

Quoting from the Mobil Travel Guide about Dallas....

"Dallas is a well-dressed, sophisticated city that tends towards formality. The cultivation of Dallas's urbane cultural persona began in 1855 with the arrival of French, Swiss and Belgian settlers looking to build a Utopian colony. Among them were scientists, artists, writers, naturalists and musicians. The ideal colony did not last, but the nucleus of culture remained on in this young community on the frontier. Today, Dallas thrives with a booming arts and culture scene, ballet, symphony, opera, theater and numerous museums...."

The Mobil Travel Guide mentions Dallas's cultural amenities while their description of Fort Worth somehow forgot to mention that Fort Worth has so much culture they had to build a district just to contain it.

The Mobil Travel Guide description of Fort Worth is funny. And so true....

"Fort Worth has been a rival to its sister city Dallas since the 1870s. When the railroad that ran through the area failed and Fort Worth's population dropped from 4,000 to 1,000 a Dallas newspaper wrote that Fort Worth was a place so dead that a panther was seen sleeping on the main street. In response to the insult, Fort Worth called itself "Panther City" and the feud began. A virtual dividing line between East and West runs between the two cities, with sophisticated and fashionable Dallas on one side, and proud and simple Fort Worth on the other..."