John Wayne museum in the Fort Worth Stockyards completes expansion project
John Wayne: An American Experience has been a staple of the Fort Worth Stockyards since it opened in 2020.
Much like the legend of the Duke, his footprint in the historic Stockyards continues to grow; The museum honoring John Wayne just completed an expansion of its collection and gift shop.
"We had to make sure that our store and our product represented John Wayne at that same level," said Ethan Wayne, one of John Wayne's sons and the CEO of John Wayne Enterprises.
Wayne said the museum added more than 30% new items to the exhibit and the gift shop. The museum houses more than 400 pieces of personal and professional memorabilia from the actor's career and takes visitors through the story of his life, according to its website.
"I think he was a role model for kids and adults and he continues to be super popular," Wayne said.
But what makes Wayne the most proud of his father is his other legacy: supporting the fight against cancer.
"He was a movie star and he had 200 films, but since his death, he's trained over 200 fellowship-trained surgical oncologists," Wayne said.
Wayne was recently in Fort Worth for one of the John Wayne Grit Series 5k races, which raise funds to fight cancer.
"Right now there's 100,000 people a year around the world that are getting cutting-edge cancer treatment that they wouldn't have had access to if it wasn't for John Wayne saying, on his death bed, use my name to help the doctors fight cancer," he said.
And that legacy may have more of an impact than what the Duke left behind on the silver screen.
"Not only leaving us with an aspirational value set and character he let us do some good for people fighting cancer," Wayne said.