The Fort Behind Fort Worth Never Saw a Battle

Major Ripley Arnold chose the bluff near the Clear and West forks of the Trinity in May 1849. He returned with Company F of the Second Dragoons in June and began building the northern anchor of a new line of Army posts. The place took the name of General William Jenkins Worth, who had died shortly before and never visited the site.

This was no stone fortress. A rope-line fence enclosed about 17 buildings around a parade ground. Soldiers made them from split logs, mud, wooden pins, and sticks. Fewer than 70 men served there at one time. The post never came under attack, and the soldiers' recorded dealings with nearby Native people were mostly trade and barter.

The Army closed Fort Worth in 1853 as settlement and the defense line moved west. Its short military life is part of what makes the story work: the fort lasted only four years, yet the name stayed.

Nearby residents reused the abandoned buildings and grounds as the center of a small town. The old post stood near today's Tarrant County Courthouse, so downtown grew from the same Trinity River bluff Arnold had picked for its wide view.