State Fair Conspiracy Theories

6 reasons to believe Big Tex was set on fire

With the new improved Big Tex back on his feet at the 2013 State Fair of Texas, we can finally begin to feel closure on the tragic, untimely death-by-fire this lovable wire statue suffered in 2012.

In the grand tapestry of Dallas tragedies, the Burning of Big Tex stands right up there with the filling in of the Deep Ellum tunnel and the cancellation of The Good Guys.

The state fair icon went down on October 19, 2012. (A moment of silence, if you will.) It was the last Friday before the fair's final weekend, a sunny day like any other. The voice of (the since coldly dismissed) Bill Bragg could be heard welcoming early fairgoers with his cheery "Howdy, folks!"

Suddenly black smoke emerged from under Big Tex's hat. A very neatly-defined - too neatly defined? - ring of fire sprouted around his neck like a coral necklace. His head burned, then his clothes.

Five minutes later, he was a charred shell. A charred shell that became international news, spawned the obligatory Facebook memorial page, and generated a rather tacky request for funds from the State Fair folks, which netted more than $95,000.

It is nothing less than a miracle that no one was hurt. The fact that the hulking statue resides inside Big Tex Circle was helpful in that regard. In any case, the fair had a bonkers closing weekend, and the world mourned his loss.

If Big Tex's demise was well-documented, his return is already netting the fair scads of PR. On this first day of the fair, what news outlet has not already posted photos of his hurried re-erection? A press conference on Friday gives this dead horse another guaranteed beating. As far as publicity goes, you couldn't have done better if you'd planned it.

Which makes us wonder: Was Big Tex's cremation planned? A number of factors suggest that, yes, Big Tex quite possibly may have been deliberately torched.

1. The oh-so fortuitous timing.

In the media world, the timing of Big Tex's immolation was very very very convenient. It took place at 10 am on a Friday, a time when journalists are traditionally scrambling for something, anything to get them through the day, and are prime bait for press releases and fake news.

"I do think that, for journalists, mid-morning is an optimal time," says Dallas Observer reporter and prodigious online presence Eric Nicholson. "It's about the time people get to work and have gotten bored enough to start cruising news sites. I read something on [media blog] Jim Romanesko, that the digital managing editor at the Wall Street Journal sent out a memo outlining when staffers should post stuff. The general idea was that traffic peaks mid- to late-morning, like 10-ish."

Dallas publicist Lindsey Miller says there are two ideal days to post news. "Monday mornings are good, and Fridays are a great day," she says. "People will read it all weekend long."

2. The fried food PR bonanza peaked in 2010.

The State Fair can be broken into two eras: Pre-fried food awards, circa 2004, when the fair was a quaint, doddering, country-people thing that had pigs and rides and corny dogs. Then came the fried Twinkie, social media, and broken attendance records.

"After the 2004 Fair, fair president Errol McKoy brought a group of us together and said, 'We’re getting a lot of buzz about fried Twinkies and Oreos and candy bars. What can we do to get even more interest in food?'" said spokeswoman Sue Gooding in 2011.

And then bam: 2006's notorious Fried Coke. Followed by 2008's Fried Bacon, 2009's Fried Butter, and 2010's Fried Beer. It was good times and lots of press. But by the time 2011's fried bubblegum rolled around, the fried-food fever had begun to cool. And the 2012 winner was, um, it's right on the tip of my tongue, wait, what was it now? Oh right: fried bacon cinnamon roll.

The fair needed a new boost.

3. Journalists are suckers for fires.

Fires are one of journalism's most favoritest news stories. No. 1, it looks pretty. No. 2, it's not going anywhere. A slightly puffy journalist doesn't have to chase after it.

4. The fishy explanation.

Six hours after the fire, State Fair spokeswoman Sue Gooding sent out a statement that the fire started in Big Tex's boots. Meanwhile, State Fair VP Mitchell Glieber said it appeared the fire was started by an electrical short circuit. "I believe there was an electrical short, but that hasn't been confirmed or investigated."

A year later, Gooding is still ambiguous about the source. "The fire report, all it said is that it was an electrical fire with an unspecified source," she says. "They think it started at the base where Big Tex plugged into the power in the ground."

"Lighting an effigy is completely manageable and doable, according to how you do it," says pyrotechnics expert Joe Walker.

For a fire that started at the base of the statue or in his boot, it sure seems convenient that his head was first to burn. But Gooding says that Big Tex acted like a chimney. "The first thing we noticed was smoke coming up out of his collar," she says.

5. The ease of arson.

One of the wondrous things about the Big Tex fire was its efficacy, the way it burned so cleanly, so efficiently. And what a miracle that no one got hurt – unless, of course, you count the unforgettable trauma of witnessing the pyre suffered by a troop of children who were scarfing funnel cakes to celebrate Big Tex's birthday. Their nightmares will never end.

Is it possible to deliberately set a statue on fire? Enter Joe Walker, pyrotechnics expert from Austin ProFx.

"Lighting an effigy is completely manageable and doable, according to how you do it," Walker says. "It depends on how much flammable material is on the inside or outside. It could be started and finished in a matter of minutes."

Cue State Fair spokeswoman Gooding: "The fire started at about 10:05 am and it was about 17-18 minutes from start to end," she says.

6. The stunningly efficient disposal.

One attendee at the fair that day who asks to remain anonymous witnessed the fair's recovery of the "corpse" and marveled at how unnervingly efficient it was.

"I was there the morning it burned down, doing a product demonstration," she says. "Let me start by saying that the experience I'd had was that, to even get a dumpster delivered to where we were was the biggest pain in the ass known to man.

"So I was amazed to see that, within 45 minutes, they had a truck on site and a crane that they used to lower him onto this truck. They had tarps to wrap his burnt body up, and get him secured and tied down. I remember thinking, 'How in the hell did their response team get that done so quick?' I thought they must have some amazing emergency plan for this. But how do you plan for Big Tex catching on fire?"

New Big Tex is still shorter than the tower in the Tower Building.

Photo by Marc Lee

New Big Tex is still shorter than the tower in the Tower Building.

state-fair

More momentum

Cafe Momentum scales its mission with new East Dallas flagship

The exterior of the new two-story Cafe Momentum flagship center in East Dallas.

Rendering courtesy of Cafe Momentum.

undefined

For over a decade, Cafe Momentum has served as more than just an acclaimed culinary destination in downtown Dallas; it has been a catalyst for kids impacted by the juvenile justice system.

What began as a bold idea has blossomed into a nationally recognized model for youth empowerment. Now, as the organization prepares to plant its roots in a new East Dallas flagship, the mission is poised to shift from a local success story into a high-speed blueprint for national change.

Cafe Momentum is building a new two-story, 11,000-square-foot center at 1000 Oak St. at Greenwood Street. The privately funded, $10 million project is scheduled to open in January 2027.

The new flagship will house the nonprofit's operations and training, as well as its popular restaurant that is open to the public. Regular diners will be glad to know they won't be making any major changes to the menu; it will remain seasonally driven. They might add a Wednesday night dinner offering, they say. And in welcome news, it will have a patio.

For the massive project, Cafe Momentum partnered with the Meadows Foundation, which provided a 0.8-acre plot in East Dallas. This partnership removes rental costs and places the new flagship in the Wilson Historic District on the Meadows Campus — a hub hosting 33 nonprofits. The structure is being built by Gordon Highlander.

A feast at Cafe Momentum.Photo by Samantha Marie

A mission with momentum
The idea behind Cafe Momentum started with Chef Chad Houser back in 2008. While serving as executive chef and co-owner of Parigi, Houser visited a juvenile detention center to teach young men how to make ice cream — an experience that deeply shifted his perception of incarcerated youth, he says. In 2011, he launched a series of pop-up dinners at various Dallas restaurants to test the non-profit restaurant model, eventually opening a permanent location at 1510 Pacific Ave. in January 2015.

Houser received the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the James Beard Foundation in 2025.

Cafe Momentum’s mission is to transform lives by equipping justice-involved youth, aged 15 to 19, with life skills, education, and employment opportunities. Participants begin with a 12-month paid internship at the award-winning restaurant, rotating through every station to gain real-world experience and confidence. Because the program requires interns to be enrolled in school — and traditional environments rarely meet their needs — Cafe Momentum created an academy to help participants complete their high school degrees.

After 10 years downtown, the organization has outgrown its current footprint, its leaders say. While workforce development happens at the restaurant, the other three pillars — 24/7 case management, mental health, and education — are housed at a nearby community center in the Thanksgiving Square underground tunnels. Integrating all four pillars into a single flagship center with the restaurant and the community center both under the same space will streamline operations and deepen their impact, they say.

The restaurant will move from downtown to the new flagship in East Dallas.Rendering courtesy of Cafe Momentum.

The expansion extends far beyond North Texas. Cafe Momentum opened a second location in Pittsburgh in 2023, followed by Atlanta in 2025, and a Denver site is slated for January 2027. Houser notes that interest from other cities remains high as they continue their national trajectory.

The impact is even reaching other restaurant groups. The Kansas-based Thrive Restaurant Group studied the model and implemented it in seven of their Wichita locations. After hosting a pop-up with local community and government leaders to demonstrate what is possible, the framework proved so successful that they are now scaling to locations in North Carolina.

“Scaling for us is a two-fold goal: the opportunity to build our location and also to build a bigger conversation and show people what is possible,” Houser says. “If we can do this in a segment that is so marginalized, think about what we can do in the broader community.”

The data backs his ambition: nearly 95 percent of interns are making academic progress, and 100 percent now have bank accounts — enabling future access to credit — compared to just one in four at the start of the program. Additionally, 85 percent are in compliance with court orders, and over 75 percent receive consistent counseling.

Chad Houser of Cafe Momentum. Courtesy photo

Real-life success
Beyond the numbers, the results are most visible in the alumni. Lucciano, better known as “Lucci,” is currently a brand ambassador for Cafe Momentum and exemplifies the mission’s success. Lucci started his internship in 2022 with an incomplete 9th grade education, but a full dream of finishing school. He went on to earn his GED as valedictorian while working at the restaurant.

“I told Chad I needed the opportunity and promised I’d make the best of it. It’s been foot to the pedal since then,” Lucci says.

He even got the chance to assist with the new openings in Atlanta and Denver. Lucci admits he was acting as an ambassador long before he had the official title.

“Being a server, you have to know how to describe the program; it was practice talking to people. I was telling everybody about it, even my Uber driver on the way to work.," he says.

Stories like Lucci’s serve as motivation for the organization's future. With the success of the model proven through the lives of its alumni, Houser is now looking to continue their growth and community impact.

“Having this flagship center will allow us to go hyperdrive into what a national practice could look like for us,” Houser says. To refine this national vision, leadership has met with organizations like LeBron James’ I PROMISE Program and Brandon Edwin Chrostowski’s EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute, to learn from their practices.

In the decade since its first restaurant opening, Cafe Momentum has served over 1,300 interns in Dallas.

“What I am most proud of is where we are and how we are today,” Houser says. “Our growth is a direct reflection of an organization that was built by listening to the people we serve and responding to that.”

charity restaurants fundraisers cafe momentum