Protecting History in Arlington

By RON WRIGHT

The city of Arlington will soon have the chance to protect one of the most important historical sites in Tarrant County. It should not pass up the opportunity.

The annexation of the 1,800-plus-acre Metrovest development north of the Trinity River and east of Farm Road 157 is now a foregone conclusion. It is the last extraterritorial-jurisdiction property of any significance in Arlington.

The ETJ includes a 111-acre parcel owned by Charles Armentrout of Dallas and leased by the Silver Lake Gun Club. This undeveloped parcel juts into the middle of the Metrovest property from the north. It has been in the Annentrout family since 1917 and has been used by a sportsman's club since the 1880s.

The original 1895 clubhouse, although somewhat dilapidated, still stands. Near the clubhouse is the site of Bird's Fort, established in 1841, the first Anglo settlement in the county and the place where an important treaty treaty between several Indian tribes and the Republic of Texas was signed. A large granite marker set there by the state in 1936 serves as a lonely reminder.

The site is important, not only because it was the first Anglo settlement but because a series of events began there that led directly to the development of the Metroplex. Several Bird's Fort settlers joined John Neely Bryan when the fort was abandoned in March 1842 and helped start a new settlement to the east called Dallas. (Bryan married one of the settlers' daughters.)

More important is the history that flowed from the Bird's Fort Treaty of 1843. The treaty established a boundary between Indian land and the white settlements, with trading houses along the treaty line. It was one of the most sweeping treaties in Texas history and ushered in a new era of settlement in the eastern Cross Timbers.

The first of the treaty trading houses was licensed in 1844 at Marrow Bone Springs, a few miles southwest of the fort in present-day Arlington. The location of the trading house led Col. Middleton Tate Johnson to establish a ranger post in the area in 1846 that began the settlement of Johnson Station. Denizens of Johnson Station moved three miles north in 1876 and began a new town called Arlington.

And it was Johnson who guided Brevet Maj. Ripley Arnold in 1849 to a site near the confluence of the Clear and West forks of the Trinity River several miles west of Johnson Station and suggested that Arnold establish his new army camp there. The camp would become Fort Worth.

The impact of Bird's Fort extends throughout the Metroplex, from the relocation of settlers near John Neely Bryan's bluff to the establishment of Fort Worth and Arlington years later. It is history worth preserving because events there led largely to what we have here today.

The city of Arlington could greatly advance the preservation of the Bird's Fort site by annexing it. This would require that city services be extended to the property, but this would impose relatively little cost because the city will already be providing services to Metrovest.

The property would also come under the protection of city ordinances and a probable landmark preservation designation. Besides, it makes little sense to leave such a small amount of ETJ, especially when it is completely surrounded by the part being annexed.

If Arlington is the birthplace of the Metroplex, then Bird's Fort was certainly the cradle. The city should negotiate seriously with the property owner to include this historic site in the Metrovest annexation.