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.

The Bird’s Fort-Viridian Historical Research Repository, launched with an initial 100 articles and administered by the Arlington Historical Society, will gather all available and credible research materials into a comprehensive, searchable, growing collection. 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.

Please visit us today at www.birdsfort.org.

The Arlington Archosaur Site has expanded our knowledge of a rare, ancient ecosystem largely unknown in North America. Amateur fossil hunters and citizen scientists have played an integral role in methodically excavating what appeared only to be a drab, run-of-the-mill hillside.

As it turns out, that hillside contained one of the most diverse, well-preserved, and numerous fossil accumulations yet discovered in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex.

Join us at the Fielder Museum on Saturday, November 16th at 2:00 PM for a special presentation/Q&A with Art Sahlstein who, along with his then seven-year-old daughter Olivia, discovered the Arlington Archosaur Site one morning in 2003.

Experience a rare window into what life was like on land in eastern North America in the late Cretaceous period some 98 million years ago. See our fossil displays and learn about The Seashores of Ancient Arlington!

WHAT:  Art Sahlstein on the Discovery of the Arlington Archosaur Site
WHEN:  November 16, 2024 - 2:00 PM
WHERE:  Fielder Museum, 1616 Abram St., Arlington, TX

If she is labeled at all on today’s maps, she is labeled Calloway Lake. Many thousands of years before the first Europeans arrived, she was a mighty bend in a broader and wilder Trinity River, orphaned when the serpentine Trinity curled around and met itself three-quarters of a mile to the south where it flows today. This placid little oxbow lake would become the birthplace of the 4th largest metropolitan area in the U.S....  READ ARTICLE

Texas was a very different place 95 million years ago. Dinosaurs and crocodiles dominated a lush seacoast, and the place that would become Arlington sat in a swampy delta lowland where a rich menagerie of marine, amphibious, and land animals lived, interacted, and died. Nowhere has this fossil record been better preserved than at the Arlington Archosaur Site. Discovered in the early 2000s, this site has provided us an unparalleled glimpse into life here during the mid-Cretaceous geologic period.

Join us at the Fielder Museum to look back at a prehistoric era when a great inland seaway divided North America into two separate continents and the place where we live today was uniquely positioned to capture a rare and revealing snapshot of that time.

The Seashores of Ancient Arlington: A Rich Fossil Record will open July 21 and run through the end of September at the Fielder Museum. The exhibit will feature regional fossil displays along with a series of special presentations illustrating rich paleontological discoveries that have been made—and will be made—in the ground beneath us.

What: The Seashores of Ancient Arlington: A Rich Fossil Record
When: Daily through Thursday October 31 (Closed Sundays)
Where: Fielder Museum, 1616 W. Abram St., Arlington, TX 76013

NOTE: We encourage and welcome both adult and student groups to attend. For groups of six or more, please call ahead to ensure we have a docent on hand to narrate the exhibit and answer any questions your group may have. — (817) 460-4001

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Allan Saxe, a beloved University of Texas at Arlington professor and prolific philanthropist, died at age 85 on June 18, 2024, the university announced.

"For nearly six decades, Allan Saxe has been a Maverick institution—one of our best known and most beloved professors," UT Arlington president Jennifer Cowley said in a statement. "He was engaging, smart, funny, and opinionated, and his classes were considered can't miss by generations of UT Arlington students."...  READ ARTICLE

The late-winter rains of 1885 had been heavy, and on March 15 rain continued to fall, putting Village Creek between Fort Worth and Arlington in a mood: out of its banks, running high, wide, and ruthless. A seventy-foot wooden bridge carried the Texas & Pacific railroad tracks over Village Creek. The bridge had been hastily built in 1876 in the rush to lay track west from Eagle Ford in Dallas County to Fort Worth. Writer Tom Marlin wrote in the Handley Herald in 2006 that although the bridge was only nine years old in 1885, it already needed to be repaired. Its unsafe condition had been reported to the railroad company by snipes...  READ ARTICLE

General Motors announced the acquisition of 255 acres for a potential future manufacturing or assembly operation in August 1951. It wasn't clear at the time if the site was envisioned for an automobile or defense-related operation, but at the groundbreaking ceremony on May 27, 1952, the plant was touted as GM's first dual-purpose plant, designed to be capable of producing military equipment, civilian automobiles, or a combination of both. Plans for aircraft production were abandoned in October 1952 and the plant...  READ ARTICLE

Geraldine Mills earlier in May received the prestigious World Changer Award from Arlington Baptist College, presented by Arlington Baptist President Clifton McDaniel. The award recognized Mills' consistent support of historical research at the university as the original site of the Top O' Hill Casino, which for many years made Arlington a highly successful (and illegal) gambling mecca in the South. (Photo by O.K. Carter)

Step through the gate of Knapp Heritage Park in downtown Arlington, and — if it’s your lucky day — you’ll be greeted by Nancy Tice and transported to another time, another way of life. An 1800s Texas pioneer way of life...  READ ARTICLE

When it first opened as the Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike in 1957, it brought hopes of bringing cooperation between Dallas and Fort Worth, cities which had historically been rivals and oftentimes enemies. While Dallas and Fort Worth still maintained some rivalry in 2001, there was one thing everyone...  READ ARTICLE

A group of young students who recently visited the Fielder Museum and Knapp Heritage Park produced sketches of their impressions. Their wisdom, insight, and even humor serve to illustrate how young imaginations are fired by exposure to history and historical places. View or download the PDF linked below to view their artwork and read their reflections — and enjoy!