Jurassic Park

It's taken a decade for historic land along the Trinity in Arlington to go from lawless to flawless.

Art Sahlstein has seen it all.

From his two-story home in Euless, the 59-year-old recently re-married father of three recalls mud flying from the tires of four-wheel drive vehicles, a screaming, mosquito-slapping wild man, and a boatload of naked partygoers.

An “untamed frontier” would be a good description.

The land he’s talking about is about 2,000 acres along the Trinity River in North Arlington. A not-so-amateur archaeologist, Sahlstein knows the area well. Really well. In 2003, Sahlstein and two students from the University of Texas-Arlington — and Sahlstein’s youngest daughter Olivia, who was 7 at the time — discovered the Arlington Archosaur site, situated among 95 million-year-old rocks within what is called the Woodbine Formation. Ancestors to a large group of reptiles, including crocodiles and birds, archosaurs, known as “the ruling reptiles,” probably originated 250 million years ago. The site’s discovery was significant because it offered a peek at preserved ancient coastland from a time when the Gulf of Mexico stretched up through Texas and into Canada. A duck-billed dino, perhaps a new species, and a new species of therapod also have been discovered at the site. Sahlstein feels it’s his duty to protect the terrain.

“It’s a geologic feature called an ox-bow lake,” he said. “We’ve had over 4,000 volunteers over the years. We love sharing this experience with people.”

Sahlstein, who recently suffered a heart attack, returned home from the hospital earlier this week.

“A heart attack leaves you weak,” he said. “But God’s going to take care of me.”

His stewardship job will be somewhat easier now with the advent of Viridian.

That 2,000 acres is becoming a residential development with a 38-acre island and homes starting in the $190s –– and going above $1 million. About 500 homes have already been built.

The brainchild of Robert Kembel, vice president and general manager of Johnson Development Corporation, a Houston-based company, Viridian was inspired in part by AT&T Stadium. And like JerryWorld, Kembel said, Viridian is also fueling mixed-use development: retail, bars/restaurants, commercial, service, and more.

Seated on a lounge chair overlooking the island, the 51-year-old married father of three, talked about how people’s perception of the land has changed over the years. He described the property as a “rough place” in the beginning.

“You had burned-out cars and lots of trespassing and dumping and stolen vehicles,” he said. “It was not a place that anyone cared about.”

Kembel said he is planning a dinosaur-themed park for the development, and the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, which catalogues and keeps the bones that are found here, is licensed to explore the site. Kembel also noted Sahlstein’s passion for the fossils.

“Art will stay up at night and keep an eye on [the site] when the unauthorized four-wheeler community comes in,” Kembel said. “When we bought this property, the off-roaders thought they owned it. We’ve had quite a few run-ins with off-roaders. They are very rude. They like to think that if it’s an open piece of land, it’s theirs. I’ve never had one four-wheeler group call me and ask if they could come four-wheeling. Not one.”

The situation has improved over the years, he said, and police officers are writing citations. Pointing skyward, Kembel talked about how police helicopters recently ran down some trespassers.

The off-roaders, he said, are “way up in the north section, where we are not developing yet. As we move around and develop up there, they’ll go away. There won’t be anywhere for them to go.”

Sahlstein walked to a clearing near a tree on a section of privately owned land inside the Viridian development. He described the tranquil area located near the Archosaur site as a sacred place.

“I like seeing the end of the era of this being the Wild West,” he said. “This is beautiful down here now.”

This is where Sahlstein goes to pray, but he’s not the first to find peace here.

On Sept. 29, 1843, according to the Texas State Archives Commission, a peace treaty between the Republic of Texas and 10 Native American tribes was established and signed here. The area was once home to Bird’s Fort, named after Major Jonathan Bird. According to Arlington, Texas: Birthplace of the Metroplex by Arista Joyner, Bird had scouted for Indians, led an unsuccessful encounter with Indians at Village Creek, and built the fort.

In 1844 at Washington-on-the-Brazos, the treaty was signed by Sam Houston, an adopted Cherokee and president of the Republic of Texas.

A large granite Bird’s Fort historical marker, placed there to honor the Texas Sesquicentennial^*, was removed after being damaged by vandals who were using it as target practice, Sahlstein said. The monument now rests under a camper top at a nearby business.

In his book Caddos, Cotton and Cowboys, former Arlington Citizen-Journal publisher and editor O.K. Carter wrote that when Texas became the 28th state, all previous treaties signed by the nation of Texas, whether with Indians or other nations, became void. “Indians in the area — those that cooperated, at least — were first relocated to Young County, near Graham, about 100 miles west, and eventually from there to Oklahoma in the 1860s.”

In other words, the treaty became worth no more than the paper it was written on after Texas teamed up with the United States. Today, four Native American tribes are recognized by the federal or state government in Texas. None of the 10 tribes that signed Bird’s Fort Treaty are among them.

Geraldine Mills, director of the Arlington Historical Society, said the attempted settlement at Bird’s Fort preceded the Anglo settlements in Dallas and Fort Worth. She also said the land at Bird’s Fort probably looked good at first to the group of people who tried settling there. It was near water and offered plenty of wood for fuel and homebuilding.

One thing that was not considered, however, was the climate.

“It flooded, and it was mosquito ridden, and they [figuratively] froze to death,” she said. “They finally got smart and went on down the river and founded Dallas.”

Arlington Historical Society board member Steve Barnes said another problem the people at the fort encountered was that the land had already been granted to the Peters Colony.

Barnes said Houston had visited the fort “to make things good with the Indians,” but the tribesmen, who were a bit skittish, stood him up. Houston waited, but mosquitoes sent him packing, and he went on to camp at Grapevine Springs, Barnes said. Houston left to handle other business before the treaty was signed, and E.H. Tarrant and G.W. Terrell are listed among the signing’s witnesses.

“Because of the Bird’s Fort Treaty, the Republic of Texas continued their push to establish a line of trading houses,” he said.

Barnes explained how prior to the Bird’s Fort Treaty, the original trading house that was supposed to have been established in the area had stopped near Waco, leaving a wide gap between the Brazos and the Red rivers.

Barnes said that because of the treaty, a trading house could not be opened east of the established line. Isaac Spence settled trading house No. 1 at what was known as Marrow Bone Springs, right near present day Arkansas Lane.

“The west was for the Indians,” Barnes said. “The east was for the white man. If you wanted to deal with one or the other, you came to the trading house.”

Barnes said from what he has gathered, John Neely Bryan originally wanted to open a trading house at his location, in what is now Dallas, but he couldn’t because of the treaty.

“So he starts a town,” he said. “Then you’ve got the roots of Dallas going.”

Barnes then produced a copy of a 1936 Dallas Morning News article stating that after the original Bird’s Fort Treaty was discovered in Austin, the debate about where Bird’s Fort Treaty had been signed was laid to rest. Up until then, it had been contended that the treaty was signed in Dallas County rather than Tarrant. It was Tarrant.

Barnes said Bird’s Fort is also where one of the earliest Anglo burials in the area took place. One burial that took place, Joyner wrote, was that of a man named Hamp Rattan who had been killed by Indians and whose body was guarded for days by his faithful dog “Watch” until it was finally recovered.

Kembel, a graduate of the University of Texas-Austin, knows that other developers have tried –– and failed –– to tame the area. He also knows that because of all of that previous earthmoving, very little of Viridian’s property remains undisturbed. He said any artifacts from the fort that might have been lying around on the surface would have been long gone before he came to town.

Nobody really knows the exact spot where Bird’s Fort was located^**, Kembel said, but it is believed to have been on a privately owned piece of property “right in the middle of [the] development,” a tract of land whose owners are not interested in selling, Kembel said.

Still, Kembel is dreaming of a way to partner with an educational organization to tell the story of Bird’s Fort Treaty. He also said flooding is no longer a problem –– the development’s drainage system is designed to hold large water capacities. While rains that doused North Texas earlier this year filled up the lake and covered its beach area, Kembel said the water did not affect any of the homes or places where there is activity.

“Our flood-control system worked very well,” he said. “Lot of areas in town flooded. We were high and dry.”

While flooding may no longer plague the area, the mosquitoes, apparently, must have missed the memo. Sahlstein has had to surrender to them while fossil hunting, he said. Kembel, however, claims they’re not a problem.

“We have hatches but not at a frequency that causes issues,” he said.

Kembel said foxes, bobcats, and wild pigs roam freely along the riverbanks because there are no fences along the river. He also talked about how the land is designated as a Certified Gold Signature Sanctuary through Audubon International, a nonprofit that specializes in environmental educational and sustainable resource management.

“To be an environmentally sensitive developer, there are things we can do,” he said. “We have a very unique site here that deserves to be treated a little differently than what would typically happen.”

Kembel pointed to a grassy slope designed to act as a natural filter for water entering into the lakes and said special areas have been constructed for wildlife.

“We probably have another $2 or $3 million of wetland mitigation we will do,” he said. “We had pelicans come here this year.”

Eventually, there will be sailing on the lake, he said. Viridian will work with Arlington’s River Legacy Park, a 1,300-acre urban sanctuary along the Trinity River, to install a canoe facility near the back of the property.

Joyner wrote that “possibly the first Anglo-American navigation along the Trinity took place in March 1842, when Captain Mabel Gilbert lashed two large cottonwood canoes together, covered them with planks, and then with his wife, Charity, his many children, his parrot, Jackoo, and a hired man to help navigate, floated his ‘boat’ from Bird’s Fort to a place near John Neely Bryan’s cabin below Elm Fork, now known as Dallas.”

Viridian wants activity, Kembel said, but they want the activity to be programmed and legal.

Kembel said CrossHarbor Capital put up the initial capital for the project with North Texas’ Huffines Communities in 2006 in the form of a 10-year fund and recently sold their interest in Viridian to Johnson Development in partnership with Tricon out of Canada.

When asked about the city dump across Collins Street, Kembel, wearing his best boy-next-door grin, replied, “Where?”

Motorists driving along Collins near the development looking west can see grassy slopes of mountainous landfill. About 3,100 tons of trash arrives there daily. It can’t really be swept under the rug.

About 500 homeowners have moved into Viridian so far, and another 150 homes are under construction. Kembel said by the end of this year, there will be 1,000 lots on the ground. Kembel plans to eventually build between 3,500 and 5,000 homes, depending on how everything works out.

As Kembel talked, children and adults cooled off at the clubhouse pools –– with sandy beaches.

“This is really kind of unique, to have a sand beach inside the pool,” he said.

Viridian also has a two-story foreign language school, courtesy of the Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district.

The community is diverse, Kembel said, but “there are not a lot of twentysomethings.”

Open space and lifestyle are big draws, but the main attraction, Kembel said, is location: smack dab in the middle of the Metroplex. About 25 families move into the development each month, he said.

Kembel and wife Keri will move into Viridian near the end of October. Now that their youngest, Chloe, a.k.a. Miss Teen Texas USA, has left for college, the Kembels are empty nesters.

Although it would be fun to say he lives on an island, he said, it’s not happening. Encircled by water (but don’t call it a moat), the island was just “a pile of dirt” Kembel decided to hang on to it.

“I can’t afford the island,” he said. “I don’t have a ‘Ph.D.’ at the end of my name, so I’m living in the back.”

And like a kind of Indiana Jones, Sahlstein is determined to rid the area of all of the off-roaders or “infidels,” as he calls them. Driving through the area recently, he pointed out a hefty mound of dirt he had dumped to block one of the four-wheeling trails. He said he knows “the infidels” are close as soon as he spots a trail of Miller Lite beer cans.

“Before I started running the infidels out, this [area] would all be burned out,” he said. “There’d be beer cans, maybe a broken, rolled over vehicle, maybe a stripped vehicle down in here.”

^*Factual error: The 1936 Bird's Fort historical marker was placed during Texas' centennial rather than sesquicentennial celebration.

^**Factual error: We know with certainty where the fort's blockhouse stood due to a reliable surveyor's report and map. In 1926 J. J. Goodfellow, former surveyor of Tarrant County, wrote of the fort:

“My first visit to the place was in 1866, at which time Colonel B. Rush Wallace was the owner of the property covering most of Calloway’s Lake and the ground upon which the blockhouse and graves are located. The remains of the [block]house were plainly visible. They stood at the northeast bank of the lake at a point where a country club later built a swimming pool and destroyed most of the signs of the trenches. From this blockhouse a path led in a northeasterly direction probably 250 to 300 yards through timber to the graves. The outer walls were in picket form, logs set on end, with deep ditches around the building.”

Goodfellow also drew a map that shows the locations of the blockhouse and graves in relation to the lake.