Amon Carter was born in a log cabin and grew up to be a "wildcatter" and one of the lucky ones: after digging for several years, he finally struck "black gold". He took his oil money and grew it exponentially, founding a newspaper and an airline (it's a little operation called American Airlines today). With this museum he fundamentally reshaped the skyline and ambitions of his home town of Fort Worth. The first tenant of the city's Cultural District, this handsome edifice was built by "starchitect" Phillip Johnson to house Carter's remarkable collection of Western American art. Carter was buying the works of such masters as Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russel at a time when no one else was, so the museum houses most of their iconic pieces. Carter's daughter Ruth Carter Stevenson expanded both the collection and the museum (with Johnson's help) to showcase the works of the United State's other great masteres including photographers Ansel Adams, Man Ray, Walker Evans and Alfred Stieglitz; and painters Georgia O'Keefe, John Singer Sargent, Albert Bierstadt and Stuart Davis. The original collection of 400 paintings, drawings, and works of sculpture by Remington and Russell has grown to more than 300,000 works and continues to grow each year, thanks to the foundation Carter established for the museum. Try to get there at 2pm so you can take part in the excellent docent-led tours of the collection.

-Pauline Frommer