Site of Bird's Fort

Settlers at Bird's Fort nearly starved. Duane Gage's account for the Arlington Historical Society draws on William H. Beeman's 1902 recollection of the winter of 1841. The Republic had promised to feed the settlers and failed, the garrison had eaten nothing for a week when families arrived, and a ranger boiled a dried calf's foot into jelly for all. Wade Hampton Rattan, who had endorsed the note for Bird's emergency beef, was killed by Indians on a hunt that winter. Congress later granted Jonathan Bird $600 in tax drafts against costs he put at $653.50.

What the plaque says

Site of Bird's Fort (One mile east) In an effort to attract settlers to the region and to provide protection from Indian raids, Gen. Edward H. Tarrant of the Republic of Texas Militia authorized Jonathan Bird to establish a settlement and military post in the area. Bird's Fort, built near a crescent-shaped lake one mile east in 1841, was the first attempt at Anglo-American colonization in present Tarrant County. The settlers, from the Red River area, suffered from hunger and Indian problems and soon returned home or joined other settlements. In August 1843, troops of the Jacob Snively expedition disbanded at the abandoned fort, which consisted of a few log structures. Organized to capture Mexican gold wagons on the Santa Fe Trail in retaliation for raids of San Antonio, the outfit had been disarmed by United States forces. About the same time, negotiations began at the fort between Republic of Texas officials Gen. Tarrant and Gen. George W. Terrell and the leaders of nine Indian tribes. The meetings ended on September 29, 1843, with the signing of the Bird's Fort Treaty. Terms of the agreement called for an end to existing conflicts and the establishment of a line separating Indian lands from territory open for colonization. (1980) Supplemental: This marker was relocated to River Legacy Parks in 2003. The Bird's Fort site is about 1-1/4 miles north-northeast of this location.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cedar Ridge Preserve — 13 mi
  A 633-acre Audubon Dallas preserve at the western edge of Dallas County, with about nine miles of trails through prairie, woodland and escarpment hills.
• Tarrant County Courthouse — 14 mi
  A pink-granite courthouse of 1895 on the bluff where the Army set up Fort Worth in 1849, in a county named for the man who led the 1841 attack on the Native villages of Village Creek.
• Fort Worth Stockyards — 14 mi
  The brick-street cattle market where Armour and Swift built packing plants in 1902, now a National Register district with a Coliseum, a museum and a longhorn drive twice a day.
• Kimbell Art Museum — 16 mi
  Louis Kahn's cycloid-vaulted museum of 1972, built from Kay Kimbell's bequest and joined in 2013 by Renzo Piano's pavilion for the exhibitions the Kahn galleries could not hold.

More markers nearby

• Sloan-Journey Expedition of 1838 — steps away
• Site of Mosier Valley School — 1.9 mi
• Saint John Missionary Baptist Church — 2.0 mi
• Cable Tool Rig — 2.7 mi