Bulldozer to Spare Site of Bird's Fort

By KIM BREWER
Star-Telegram Writer

The place where the historic Bird's Fort once stood may someday be surrounded by office buildings, shopping centers, homes and drainage levees, but it won't be lost to future generations.

This was the promise made Monday by all involved in a $1 billion real estate project in north Arlington.

Tarrant County commissioners cleared the path for construction of the development Monday by unanimously voting to establish the North Arlington Levee Improvement District. Commissioners took the action after property owners and developers vowed under oath to preserve the historic site.

Bird's Fort on the Trinity River was the site of the signing of an 1843 Indian treaty opening North Texas to pioneer settlement.

Although there are no visible remains of the fort, the site is marked by a monument and plaque. Archaeologists at Southern Methodist University have excavated pottery dating to the 1800s.

Establishment of the levee district will allow developers of the project to finance construction of a $35 million drainage system by taxing property owners in the district. Commissioners appointed three directors to administer business of the levee district.

The new levee district includes 2,100 acres north of Arlington, and is bordered by the Trinity River on the south, FM 157 on the west, Texas 360 on the east and the Rock Island Railroad tracks on the north.

Only property owners in the district will be taxed to finance the levee system.

Charles D. Armentrout of Dallas, who has refused to sell his 111 acres of riverside property to the developers, said Monday that he was not opposed to formation of the district as long as the fort site and a small lake are preserved. Bird's Fort is on part of Armentrout's property.

"I assume that this was inevitable," Armentrout said. "There's too much involved in that project for one property owner to block it."

Development plans call for the levee district either to buy or acquire through condemnation proceedings part of Armentrout's property for conversion to a drainage channel.

Representives of Meridian Services Corp., developers of the project, said a 1,600-foot-wide strip stretching from the southeast to the northwest corner of Armentrout's property will be needed for the channel. That strip won't include the site of Bird's Fort, the representatives said.

Nevertheless, the developers are interested in capitalizing on the historical significance of the fort site.

"We, from the beginning, considered Bird's Fort a focal point of our development," said Greg Cagle, president of Meridian Services Corp.