Bird's Fort Today (1977)

In the beginning - in 1840 - Fort Bird was established for two reasons. One, to form a nucleus for a colony, and two, to provide protection against the Wichita and other roving tribes of hostile Indians. Established by Captain Jonathan Bird and about thirty Texas Rangers, the Fort was only used sporadically after 1842 when the Ranger enlistment ran out. By the 1850's Fort Bird was abandoned and the original settlement had disappeared. Today, Fort Bird as part of the beginning of a growing Dallas - Fort Worth metropolitan area, is known mostly to Historians and local residents who have been in the area for some time.

At the present time, Fort Bird is located on 118 acres of land occupied by Mr. and Mrs. D. R. Page, who are caretakers for the property owned by Charles Armentrout of Dallas. Immediately prior to the property being leased by Mr. Armentrout, to the Arlington Sportsman's Club, Fort Bird was readily accessible to the public. Today the privilege of visiting the Fort is by appointment only, at the convenience of the Pages.

Today the outlying land around the Charles Armentrouts' 118 acres is mainly owned by gravel companies. The land has been dug up by heavy machinery and the hopes of finding any additional artifacts or unknown burial sites becomes more remote with each passing day. According to Mrs. Page, TXI, one of the gravel companies, is attempting to obtain gravel rights on some additional land in the area. The expansion of the gravel companies is making access to Fort Bird more difficult.

Today the only thing left to show for Fort Bird is a stone monument approximately 2-1/2 feet by 4 feet tall. Immediately to the left is a pickup camper sitting precariously close to the monument. A few feet behind is the old, cracking weed and trash infested swimming pool left from the days of the Arlington Sportsman's Club. A little farther back and to the left is a large mobile home occupied by the Page family and beside the mobile home is a makeshift dog run with a dog house. All this can be seen with one sweeping glance standing next to the monument. On the other side of the mobile home is the slowly deteriorating Arlington Sportsman's Club house, now only used as a storage shed. A few yards to the left and a little to the front of the monument is a place where people did their trap shooting. In general it appears to me that the monument is lost and forgotten in its surroundings.

In talking with friends who live in the general area (the Metroplex), I found a majority of them had not ever heard of Bird's Fort. Most of those that did know of it had lived in the area for a number of years. None of those who were aware of Fort Bird had ever seen the monument. To those most closely associated with it, Mr. Armentrout and the Pages, it is more a nuisance than anything, according to Mrs. Page. The nuisance attitude is something which I would blame some of the public for, more than Mr. Armentrout or the Pages. A small minority of the public by vandalizing property and having beer parties forced them to fence the property and keep a chain blocking the road locked. This in turn means that whenever someone desires to see the monument they must make arrangements for someone to meet them at the gate. At the present time, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and the Tarrant County Historical Commission are working to have the monument moved to a new location. Maybe this will help to make more people aware of this segment of the Metroplex's past.