dallashistory

I lived in several areas of Oak Cliff as a child, two of the areas were near creeks. One was on Brooklyn and the other was on Arizona. It seemed that the creeks were always flowing and I played in them frequently. I just never thought about the where they began or the source of the water. Do you know?
Sincerely,
Ken

Ken,

There's a great map of the watersheds of Oak Cliff at

http://wheredoesitgo.com/watershed_maps ... ershed.pdf

There are some interesting threads on the old DHS message board about the three forks of Cedar Creek near the place that apparently gave Oak Cliff its name. Gerald Harris led a tour of that creek, which runs through the Marsalis Park zoo several years back. The other great creeks are Coombs Creek, Little Branch, King's Branch. I played in all of them back in the 1940s and 50s; and rode motorcycles all through the various branches of the Trinity River from Dallas County to Tarrant County in the 1960s.

Tour 3 forks of Cedar Creek of Oak Cliff & Learn Why It Kills People
http://www.dallashistory.org/cgi-bin/we ... s;read=606

How about 3 forks of Hord's Ridge
http://www.dallashistory.org/cgi-bin/we ... s;read=655

The following is a blurb by Gerald Harris, taken from the above thread.

Start of quote:

"Three Forks of the Trinity" has been around since
before John Neely Bryan. To quote William McDonald
in Dallas Rediscovered:Alonso de Leon in 1689 named the Trinity--in
Spanish, La Santisima Trinidad, after the Holy
Trinity. But he crossed the river near the coast
more than 200 miles below the Three Forks, and
never knew his religious name coincided with the
tri-branched upper formation.

In Oak Cliff, in part of the original Hord's Ridge,
in Cedar Creek (which at this point is really a
limestone arroyo with water carrying characteristics
of concrete), there is a place where three 'creeks'
come together in an unusual set of circumstances
that occasionally cause water to flow over Beckley,
which is where some members of the Frazier family
were killed. There is also a lot of history in
the area including what may have been the original
oak-covered cliff from which T L Marsalis derived
the name "Oak Cliff"--at least some oldsters of 5
decades ago thought so. I grew up in the area.
End of quote

Respectfully,
Adam

Thanks Adam,
That watershed map helps alot, I'm looking now to see if I can see just a bit further south.
Sincerely,
Ken

This is where the history of Oak Cliff is today,in creeks where the old dump grounds dating back to the 1880s is a location in time now being looted by pot hunters..sifting for gold and jewelry among fine glass... i have been going to this site for over 30 years not having these intentions..
while there are two other such sites, and why do they exist, because, if they were to catch on fire they become segergated by the creek banks and flowing waters.....
the history of Oak Cliff can be realized this way , while the pot hunters dig fast so is the history being lost and removed, and 4 times i have contacted the state on this problem, the same old story is this...you cave men, better wake up and quit trying to preserve your history,becasue it aint no good....until then, A/T, Adovcate of lost causes.