Alone in the Wilderness

The Birthplace of DFW

When the families of Bird's Fort abandoned their troubled settlement on the West Fork of the Trinity River in the spring of 1842, the place seemed destined to become no more than a miserable, inconsequential footnote in the area’s history. Instead, it became the spark that ignited the growth of a remote North Texas wilderness into the 4th largest metropolitan area in the United States. The DFW Metroplex was born at—and out of—Bird's Fort. This 111-acre parcel of land and water, now nestled peacefully within the Viridian community of North Arlington, is truly the last vestige of a time and place that pitted Anglo-American settlers against Native American tribes in a sequence of events that would set the course for the future of North Texas.

Unfortunately, the story of Bird's Fort and its shaping of today's Texas has received little recognition. Precious few reliable background materials have been available, and a high percentage of accounts found online or in print publications propagate a legacy of error and misrepresentation that ranges from minor inaccuracies to outright myths. In short, there's a high probability that whatever you've read about Bird's Fort is wrong.

It is the purpose of this website, then, to gather all available research materials into a comprehensive, searchable repository. Here, current and future historians can tap into those resources, consider the reliability of each, and begin to correct the record on the Lone Star State's most significant historic site north of the San Jacinto Battleground, the Alamo, and the State Capitol.