A First Day Of October Walk With The Indian Ghosts Wondering How Many Were Murdered In The Battle Of Village Creek

Yellow Flowers in the Village Creek Blue Bayou

This morning's swim was quite refreshing, what with the air at my location on the planet being heated to a relatively chilly 58 degrees, the water in the pool was warmer than the air.

At noon I decided I needed to check in on the Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area in Arlington.

I saw two large water snakes today in Village Creek. I was not able to get a picture of either.

This past weekend's rain has recharged the Village Creek Blue Bayou, causing the sprouting of a lot of green foliage, which is blooming yellow flowers.

In the Blue Bayou I saw a small turtle the likes of which I've not seen before, for a brief moment, before he or she dived for safety. The turtle had a red marking on it.

There were a lot of people in the VCNHA today, including a pair of canoodling smoochers sitting on a picnic table by the Blue Bayou. I don't think they noticed me.

I stopped by the historical marker that is stuck in the ground by the parking lot off Dottie Lynn Parkway, today, and read it, again.

I'd not made note, previously, of one of the paragraphs. I found this paragraph just a bit appalling in its nonchalant way in which it described what was basically a crime against humanity.

Below is the referenced paragraph...

The earliest days of the newly formed Republic of Texas record the end of the long history of Native American settlement in this area. Expeditions of scouting parties made up of the rangers, volunteers and militia were designated to clear the area of Indians to make way for colonists and the land hungry settlers who were being attracted with the sales of land grants in 1841 to the W.S. Peters' Emigration Land Company of Louisville, Kentucky. Before being destroyed in the Battle of Village Creek in 1841, a whole series of villages lay on either side of the creek extending for about five miles southward from near current-day Lamar Boulevard to a hill on which was located the largest village at the current location of the clubhouse of the Lake Arlington Golf Course near Spur 303. A large village was also located in the vicinity of Village Creek where it crosses this trail east of the marker. Three hundred acres of corn grew near the villages which supported over 1,000 warriors of the native local tribes, which included the Anadarko, Bidais, Caddo, Keechi, Kickapoo, Tawakoni, Tonkawa, Waco, Waxahachie and Wichita, all members of the Caddoan Confederacy.

I have not found any source which tells me how many Indians were murdered in the Village Creek zone in this primitive version of abusing someone's eminent domain. The number likely was very large.

A Shady Walk Today With The Indian Ghosts Of The Anadarko, Bidais, Caddo, Heechi, Kickapoo, Tawakoni, Tonkawa, Waco, Waxahachie and Wichita Tribes

Village Creek Indian Path

I was in no mood to overheat during my regular midday endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation today, what with the temperature approaching 90, not a lot of wind blowing and me already overheated due to having my phone against my ear for way too long this morning dealing with some ridiculousness that I later figured out was caused by something called Facebook.

It really is time for the next big thing to come along and replace Facebook, like Facebook replaced MySpace.

I digress.

So, with me in no mood to overheat, I opted to walk in the shade in the Village Creek Natural Historical Area with the Native American Ghosts of the Caddoan Confederacy, with that particular confederacy made up of tribes like the Anadarko, Bidais, Caddo, Heechi, Kickapoo, Tawakoni, Tonkawa, Waco, Waxahachie and Wichita.

I think only one state, that being my old home state of Washington, has more place names named after Native Americans than the current state I am located in, that being Texas. Washington is way smaller in size than Texas, so you would think Washington would have fewer Native American place names.

But, Washingtonians got along with Native Americans better than the Texans did. Which has towns in Washington, like Seattle, named after a well liked chief. While the biggest town in Texas is named after some white guy with the last name of Houston.

I decided to leave the paved trail today and take the old Indian Path that leads through the woods. This proved to be a bit of a mistake. All the excess precipitation has the old Indian Path a bit over grown. I was glad I had my trusty snake/spider web whacking stick with me.

I whacked no snakes, but I did do some spider web whacking.

Balloon Festival Disasters & Durango In Texas

In June, here in the Dallas/Fort Worth zone, there is going to be a balloon festival.

A couple days ago I got an email with information about this festival asking me to please list it on my website.

I don't think I'm going to do that.

Why?

Well. Way back in the year 2000 I was involved with something called, if I remember right, the Mansfield Balloon Fest. The 2000 Balloon Fest opened with a huge crowd. Then, that night, 12 inches of rain wreaked havoc, turning the Balloon Fest grounds into a muddy mess.

The next year the Balloons were launched once more in Mansfield. That year's event did not get destroyed by rain.

The year following that, 2002, the Balloon Fest was moved from Mansfield to the Midway Regional Airport, near Midlothian, expanded to include Mansfield, Midlothian and Waxahachie, and renamed the North Texas Balloon Classic.

The first 2 days of the 2002 North Texas Balloon Classic went off without a problem. And then early Sunday morning, Father's Day of 2002, the Midway Regional Airport was hit with hurricane force winds, blowing apart the huge tent under which many of the vendors were located and ripping apart the booths outside the tent. It was a huge mess.

One would think with 2 out of 3 of the Balloon Festivals having such serious problems that this would put an end to it. Nope. That did not happen.

The 2003 North Texas Balloon Classic ballooned bigger than the 2002 version. More sponsors were onboard. More music. More food. More vendors. An entry fee of $10 per car was charged. During the 3 days a lot of cars showed up. So many that there were traffic jams.

And yet, somehow, the 2003 North Texas Balloon Classic ended not with a weather disaster, but with a financial disaster that was the final death blow.

For the 2003 North Texas Balloon Classic I agreed to re-do their existing really bad website. Part of that agreement was that I would be paid after the festival had generated its revenue. I, along with many others, were not paid.

I do not know how it came to be that 3 years ago the Balloon Festival rose from the dead at Midway Regional Airport, but it did. Ironically, the current iteration has an even worse website than the one I re-did 7 years ago.

Anyway, now you know why I won't be listing the 3rd Annual DFW Balloon Classic & AirFest.