Dallas in Wonderland: A Walking Tour of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Put on your cowboy boots and ten gallon hat, you’re in Texas! On this walking tour, you’ll discover that Dallas is not the western town that many people might think it is.

You’ll learn about the humble beginnings of Texas, a territory that was seized from the Caddo Confederacy of Native Americans by the Spanish, then claimed by several other nations before briefly becoming its own republic. We’ll set off from the Public Sculpture Garden and Park and cover a fair amount of ground to reach the Historic District and the AT&T Discovery District. There, you’ll hear about the city’s good, bad, and ugly side, including some of the most heinous crimes committed on American soil. I’ll tell you about the terrible lynching of Allen Brooks in 1910 by a mob who forcibly seized him from Law Enforcement, and the 2016 shooting of Dallas Police officers.

Intrigued by true crime and ghost stories? You can pop inside the Adolphus Hotel to experience luxury and perhaps a paranormal encounter with the help of special guest podcasters, Sinisterhood. You’ll have the opportunity to step back in time to the grassy knoll at Dealey Plaza, and relive the JFK assassination and its aftermath. Leaving the bad behind, you’ll see Dallas’s most visited sights too. Then, after you’ve gathered facts and debunked conspiracy theories about Fidel Castro and the CIA at Reunion Tower, you can pay your respects to the former president at the JFK memorial. From there, the latter half of the tour takes you down a road of architectural outliers including the Art Deco Greyhound station, the Brutalist Dallas City Hall and the J Erik Jonsson Central Library, where I’ll show you some extremely rare and valuable documents.

Along the way, you’ll hear the answers to questions like:

• Did JFK’s killer act alone?
• Was Texas ever its own country?
• How have at least four people lost their lives at the Adolphus Hotel?
• Where can I find a giant eyeball in Dallas?
• What’s good to eat and drink in the Big D?
• Why was Dallas called ”The City of Hate”?

After the tour, you should be well versed in the history of this Texan city and its sight-seeing opportunities. In fact, you might even be able to pass as a Dallasite! So slather on the sunscreen, charge your phone, and give yourself two hours (or take your time) to crawl down the rabbit hole of Dallas in Wonderland.