I haven't been able to blog for quite sometime, since I have been caught up with academics. But here goes a brief blog about Fort Richardson which I visited about 10 days ago. Fort Richardson State Park, in Jacksboro, Tx, sited about 85 miles from DFW Metroplex, is one of those places where one can experience the real wild western side of Texas. These are places which very few people outside US would have heard about, much less visited. According to local history and the information available at the "Park Interpretative Center" this was apparently the site the very bloody "Indian Wars" (I would call it "Massacre of Native Americans by Colonizing White people").
When I heard about Fort Richardson, I imagined that there would be a fort like the ones we find in India. High ramparts with several bastians surrounding the perimeter of the fort and canons all over. But when we finally got there after meandering our way through miles and miles of empty flat lands I was pretty disappointed to know that there was no fort indeed. It is just a vast open space like any other plain in Texas with a few old (less than 200 years) buildings.
But I must give credit to Texas Parks and Wildlife who have made this place worthy of a picnic, hike and outing in general. There are hiking trails with boulders which could be explored, the creek which slices through the terrain leads to a dam where one could enjoy a swim during the hot Texas Summer months...
This is definitely not the place for those who seek history... it is only a place to feel the vastness of Texas and enjoy hiking in the wilderness. Some of the remaining buildings of the Fort are posted below.
Entrance to the Park
The interpretation center which also houses a small museum
Hospital building - where wounded white soldiers were cared for - there is a morgue behind it also
The Bakery of the Fort
Another picture of the Hospital
The Guard House - or whatever remains of it
This place was a limestone quarry, now filled up with rain water
Quarry lake - another view
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