The Battle For the Trinity Bluffs: An Historical Retrospective..

During 2007 and 2008 the controversy over the devastation that the Tarrant County College District was wreaking to both the historic Trinity Bluffs and by extension to the Trinity Bottoms at the base of the Bluffs which included the old TXU power plant buildings was under consideration.  The TXU controversy which is still in play, as well as some of the history was covered in a previous Fort Worth Gazette blog.

Early Painting Depicting the Fort On the Trinity Bluffs <Click to enlarge>

As one of the attendees at the meetings helping to represent one of the involved parties, I went through my map collection and put together an historical map booklet of the Trinity bluffs and Bottoms as they were published from the earliest Fort Worth and Tarrant County maps to the present day. These informal booklets were distributed to those at the meetings and some other interested parties and seemed to be helpful to some.

1929 FW Skyline From the North <Click to enlarge image>

 During that period I became intrigued with the history of the Fort, the old Market Square, the Bluffs and the area around it.  In the early 1900's, after a long period of neglect after the Fort was abandoned and some ill-considered commercial development took place, a group of influential Fort Worth women decided that the destruction had gone far enough.  Militant was a mild word for their efforts.  They were "Park Guerrilla's" and pretty fearsome if you were on the other side.  

To  document a little of this and to underline how important I felt it was to preserved the Bluffs, in 2008 I wrote a little article available on-line (PDF) called "The Battle For The Trinity Bluffs".