American Dream Vacations
1807 N. Main St., Cleburne, Texas 76033
1-817-641-4081
We are first and foremost an RV Rental dealership. Our entire rental fleet is made up of newer vehicles that are meticulously maintained and cleaned. Every unit is thoroughly cleaned after every rental and again before it goes out. Every bed is sanitized with a hospital disinfectant to insure our customers are sleeping on a clean bed.
Our rental fleet consists of motorhomes, travel trailers, fifth wheel trailers and tent campers. Read on for a definition of each style and type of recreational vehicle we offer for rent.
Class C Motorhome - These vehicles are sometimes referred to as "cabover" styled motorhomes. They are built on a heavy duty van type chassis and have both a drivers and passengers door on the cab. Generally speaking, this style of unit will sleep more people because of the additional bed over the cab. Many people perceive this type of RV as easier to drive because of the lower profile.
Class A Motorhome - These vehicles resemble a bus in appearance but are not as large. These units generally offer considerably more storage space below the floor level. They are sometimes referred to as "basement models". Both the Class C and Class A motorhomes offer all the same conveniences and operate on regular unleaded fuel.
Class A Diesel Pusher Motorhomes - These motorhomes also have the appearance of a small bus but are powered by a diesel engine located in the rear of the vehicle. They operate on diesel fuel only. Because the engine is at the rear of the vehicle, they are generally quieter while driving since all engine noise is behind you. As a rule, diesel pusher motorhomes have nicer flooring, counter tops and seating covers.
Fifth Wheel Trailers - These recreational vehicles are pulled by your tow truck. The vehicle must be equipped with a fifth wheel hitch that is mounted in the bed of truck. These can't be towed with any type of bumper hitch. These units are, more often than not, the preferred rental unit for long term renters and are delivered and picked up by us at their site. These units have more of a residential feel to them because of the multiple levels and the amount of separation between the living area and the bedroom.
Travel Trailers - These are sometimes referred to as "bumper pull" trailers. They range in size from 17' to 34'. The units we have in rental are considered lightweight trailers therefore making them easier to tow and allowing our renters to get a larger trailer with less weight. We offer both Hybrid and full hard sided trailers for rent. The Hybrid trailers have fixed sidewalls and a fixed roof with one or more "pop outs" that usually house additional beds. The "pop outs" are usually a canvas type material much like a tent fabric. The hard sided travel trailers have fixed walls and roof all the way around.
Tent Campers - These trailers are sometimes referred to as "pop up campers" or "tent trailers". They are all one and the same. These units are very lightweight and can be towed with small vehicles. They are very low profile when towing but afford you a lot of space when "popped up". They are air conditioned and provide a lot of comfort for the money. They generally take less than 10 minutes to set up once you reach your destination.
Texas remained an independent Republic for nine years prior to being annexed as the 28th state on December 29, 1845. Less than three months later on March 24, 1846, an American Army commanded by General Zachary Taylor was encamped along the northern banks of the Rio Grande, directly across the river from Mexican soldiers. Within a month, hostilities commenced and a large body of Mexican cavalrymen attacked a patrol of dragoons (soldiers trained to fight on foot, but who transport themselves on horseback) on April 23, 1846. Declaring, "American blood had been shed on American soil", President Polk addressed Congress, who declared war on Mexico.
Major General William Jenkins Worth (1794-1849) was second in command to General Zachary Taylor at the opening of the Mexican-American War in 1846. Born in Hudson, NY, Worth was a tall and commanding figure said to be the best horseman and handsomest man in the Army. He was of a manly, generous nature, and possessed talents that would have won him distinction on any field of action. While leading his troops, Worth himself personally planted the first American flag on the Rio Grande.
Under General Taylor, Worth conducted negotiations for Mexico's surrender of Matamoros and was entrusted with the assault on the Bishop's Palace in Monterrey, Mexico. The assault on the Bishop's Palace was a hazardous undertaking. Worth and his troops managed to drag their cannon and ammunition over adverse terrain and up sheer cliff faces while under constant heavy enemy fire. Worth passed from post to post during the entire action on horseback escaping personal injury and losing a minimal number of his soldiers.
Worth played a critical role in the capture of Puebla (Mexico's second largest city in 1846) and was one of the first to enter the city of Mexico, where he personally cut down the Mexican flag that waved over the National Palace. At the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, Worth was placed in command of the Department of Texas in 1849.
In January 1849 Worth proposed a line of ten forts to mark the Western Texas frontier from Eagle Pass to the confluence of the West Fork and Clear Fork of the Trinity River. One month later Worth died from cholera. Worth was a well respected and decorated U.S. Army General at the time of his death and a hero of three wars. Fort Worth, Texas; Lake Worth, Texas; Lake Worth, Florida; and Worth County, Georgia are named in his honor.
Upon Worth's death, General William S. Harney assumed command of the Department of Texas and ordered Major Ripley A. Arnold to find a new fort site near the West Fork and Clear Fork. On June 6, 1849, Arnold established a camp on the bank of the Trinity River and named the post Camp Worth in honor of General Worth.
In August 1849 Arnold moved the camp to the North-facing bluff which overlooked the mouth of the Clear Fork of the Trinity River. The U.S. War Department officially named the post Fort Worth on November 14, 1849.
Although Indian attacks were still a threat in the area, pioneers were already settling near the fort. E. S. Terrell (1812–1905) claimed to be the first resident of Fort Worth. The fort was flooded the first year and moved to the top of the bluff where the courthouse sits today. No trace of the original fort remains.
Fort Worth went from a sleepy outpost to a bustling town when it became a stop along the legendary Chisholm Trail, the dusty path where millions of cattle were driven North to market. Fort Worth became the center of the cattle drives, and later, the ranching industry. Its location on the Old Chisholm Trail, helped establish Fort Worth as a trading and cattle center and earned it the nickname "Cowtown."
During the 1860s Fort Worth suffered from the effects of the Civil War, and Reconstruction. The population dropped as low as 175, and money, food, and supply shortages burdened the residents. Gradually, however, the town began to revive.
By 1872 Jacob Samuels, William Jesse Boaz, and William Henry Davis had opened general stores. The next year Khleber M. Van Zandt established Tidball, Van Zandt, and Company, which became Fort Worth National Bank in 1884.
In 1876 the Texas & Pacific Railway arrived in Fort Worth causing a boom and transformed the Fort Worth Stockyards into a premier cattle industry and in wholesale trade. The arrival of the railroad ushered in an era of astonishing growth for Fort Worth as migrants from the devastated war-torn South continued to swell the population and small, community factories and mills yielded to larger businesses. Newly dubbed the nickname, "Queen City of the Prairies", Fort Worth supplied a regional market via the growing transportation network.
Fort Worth became the westernmost railhead and a transit point for cattle shipment. With the city's main focus being on cattle and the railroads, local businessman, Louville Niles, formed the Fort Worth Stockyards Company in 1893. Shortly thereafter, the two biggest cattle slaughtering firms at the time, Armour and Swift, both established operations in the new stockyards.
With the boom times came some problems. Fort Worth had a knack for separating cattlemen from their money. Cowboys took full advantage of their last brush with civilization before the long drive on the Chisholm Trail from Fort Worth up North to Kansas. They stocked up on provisions from local merchants, visited the colorful saloons for a bit of gambling and carousing, then galloped Northward with their cattle and whoop it up again on their way back. The town soon became home to Hell's Half Acre, the biggest collection of bars, dance halls and bawdy houses South of Dodge City, giving Fort Worth the nickname of "The Paris of the Plains."
Crime was rampant and certain sections of town were off-limits for proper citizens. Shootings, knifings, muggings and brawls became a nightly occurrence. Cowboys were joined by a motley assortment of buffalo hunters, gunmen, adventurers, and crooks. As the importance of Fort Worth as a crossroads and cowtown grew, so did Hell's Half Acre.
What was originally limited to the lower end of Rusk Street (renamed Commerce Street in 1917) spread out in all directions. By 1881 the Fort Worth Democrat was complaining Hell's Half Acre covered more like 2.5 acres (10,000 m2).
The Acre grew until it sprawled across four of the city's main North-South thoroughfares. These boundaries, which were never formally recognized, represented the maximum area covered by the Acre, around 1900. Occasionally, the Acre was also referred to as "The bloody Third Ward" after it was designated one of the city's three political wards in 1876.
Long before the Acre reached its maximum boundaries, local citizens had become alarmed at the level of crime and violence in their city. In 1876 Timothy Isaiah (Longhair Jim) Courtright was elected City Marshal with a mandate to tame the Acre's wilder activities.
Courtright cracked down on violence and general rowdiness by sometimes putting as many as 30 people in jail on a Saturday night, but allowed the gamblers to operate unmolested. After receiving information that train and stagecoach robbers, such as the Sam Bass gang, were using the Acre as a hideout, local authorities intensified law-enforcement efforts. Yet certain businessmen placed a newspaper advertisement arguing that such legal restrictions in Hell's Half Acre would curtail the legitimate business activities there.
Despite this tolerance from business, however, the cowboys began to stay away, and the businesses began to suffer. City officials muted their stand against vice. Courtright lost support of the Fort Worth Democrat and consequently lost when he ran for reelection in 1879.
Throughout the 1880s and 1890s the Acre continued to attract gunmen, highway robbers, card sharps, con men, and shady ladies, who preyed on out-of-town and local sportsmen.
At one time or another reform-minded mayors like H. S. Broiles and crusading newspaper editors like B. B. Paddock declared war on the district but with no long-term results. The Acre meant income for the city (all of it illegal) and excitement for visitors. This could possibly be why the reputation of the Acre was sometimes exaggerated by raconteurs which longtime Fort Worth residents claimed the place was never as wild as its reputation.
Suicide was responsible for more deaths than murder, and the chief victims were prostitutes, not gunmen. However much its reputation was exaggerated, the real Acre was bad enough. The newspaper claimed "it was a slow night which did not pan out a cutting or shooting scrape among its male denizens or a morphine experiment by some of its frisky females."
The loudest outcries during the periodic clean-up campaigns were against the dance halls, where men and women met, as opposed to the saloons or the gambling parlors, which were virtually all male.
A major reform campaign in the late 1880s was brought on by Mayor Broiles and County Attorney R. L. Carlock after two events. In the first of these, on February 8, 1887, Luke Short and Jim Courtright had a shootout on Main Street that left Courtright dead and Short the "King of Fort Worth Gamblers."
Although the fight did not occur in the Acre, it focused public attention on the city's underworld. A few weeks later a poor prostitute known only by the name of Sally was found murdered and nailed to an outhouse door in the Acre.
These two events, combined with the first prohibition campaign in Texas, helped to shut down the Acre's worst excesses in 1889. More than any other factor, urban growth began to improve the image of the Acre, as new businesses and homes moved into the South end of town.
Another change was the influx of black residents. Excluded from the business end of town and the nicer residential areas, Fort Worth's black citizens, who numbered some 7,000 out of a total population of 50,000 around 1900, settled into the south end of town. Though some joined in the profitable vice trade (to run, for instance, the Black Elephant Saloon), many others found legitimate work and bought homes.
A third change was in the popularity and profitability of the Acre, which was no longer attracting cowboys and out-of-town visitors. Its visible population was more likely to be derelicts, hobos, and bums.
By 1900 most of the dance halls and gamblers were gone. Cheap variety shows and prostitution became the chief forms of entertainment. The Progressive era was similarly making its reformist mark felt in districts like the Acre all over the country.
In 1911 Rev. J. Frank Norris launched an offensive against racetrack gambling in the Baptist Standard and used the pulpit of the First Baptist Church to attack vice and prostitution. Norris used the Acre to scourge the leadership of Fort Worth. When he began to link certain Fort Worth businessmen with property in the Acre and announce their names from his pulpit, the battle heated up.
On February 4, 1912, Norris's church was burned to the ground; that evening his enemies tossed a bundle of burning oiled rags onto his porch, but the fire was extinguished and caused minimal damage. A month later the arsonists succeeded in burning down the parsonage.
In a sensational trial lasting a month, Norris was charged with perjury and arson in connection with the two fires. He was acquitted, but his continued attacks on the Acre accomplished little until 1917. A new city administration and the federal government, which was eyeing Fort Worth as a potential site for a major military training camp, joined forces with the Baptist preacher to bring down the curtain on the Acre finally.
The police department compiled statistics showing that 50 percent of the violent crime in Fort Worth occurred in the Acre, a shocking confirmation of long-held suspicions. After Camp Bowie was located on the outskirts of Fort Worth in the summer of 1917, martial law was brought to bear against prostitutes and barkeepers of the Acre. Fines and stiff jail sentences curtailed their activities. By the time Norris held a mock funeral parade to "bury John Barleycorn" in 1919, the Acre had become a part of Fort Worth history. The name, nevertheless, continued to be used for three decades thereafter to refer to the depressed lower end of Fort Worth.