Clock Tower With a Gunfight Keeps Time in Grapevine

Larger than life figures come alive twice per day

It's 127 feet of glory in Grapevine.

The clock above the city's new Convention and Visitors Bureau comes alive at noon and 6 p.m.

Two 9-foot movable figures walk out of the Glockenspiel-style clock to re-enact a fictitious train robbery, complete with a gunfight.

"I like when he said, 'Aw! You shot me,'" said 6-year-old Sam Schafer, who watched the show with her family.

The moral of the story was her mother's favorite part.

"The coolest part was when they said that train robbery doesn't pay," Andrea Schafer said.

The would-be train robbers stand 75 feet above the ground, close to the top of the Cotton Belt Hotel Clock Tower. This type of clock originated in Germany and can best be imagined as a huge cuckoo clock.

"I was very impressed that Grapevine has one of these, a Glockenspiel like that," said Pat Brogdon, of Euless, who grew up in Grapevine.

Convention and Visitors Bureau cost $10 million to build, with the clock tower costing over $100,000.

The building and the clock tower were publicly unveiled Friday morning, just in time for Grapevine's 28th Annual Main Street Days festival.

The Grapevine Convention and Visitors Bureau said tourism is the city's main source of income and is well worth the cost.

Fifteen million people visit Grapevine annually.

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