Cross Timbers Ecosystem

A vast mosaic of grasslands and woodlands that form a broad ecotone between the eastern deciduous forests and the grasslands of the southern Great Plains; covering about 26,000 square miles.

Cross Timbers Vegetation

The region can be subdivided into four categories:

• Eastern Cross Timbers
• Western Cross Timbers
• Fort Worth Prairie (grassland 10-30 miles wide)
• Lampassas Cut Plain (mesas, considered extension of Hill Country)

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Human beings began to establish themselves in the Cross Timbers region approximately 7,000 years ago.  Research has shown that Native Americans sustained themselves by hunting, fishing, and gathering food.  Though the perception is that the Native American peoples preferred the more open prairie to the wooded areas there were those tribes that not only frequented the woods but also settled there.  The Caddo and Tonkawa both settled along the edge and in the forest with the Tonkawa eventually totally retreating into the safety of the woods.  The Comanche and Pawnee were known to venture into the woods after game; however it is believed that they preferred the more open prairies and plains as well as areas that provided more reliable water sources.

Dense, nearly impenetrable woods, spanning north from Texas to Kansas were used by Native Americans for food and shelter.

The first non-native explorers to write about the Cross Timbers were the Spaniards.  Their initial attempts to make their way through the woods proved to be quite frustrating, leaving one explorer to state, “The forest was so impenetrable that we could not pass through on horseback without cutting down some trees with axes and knives.  We lost two knives.  We advanced seven leagues with great difficulty, arriving in the afternoon in an open spot, that God had placed there for us to rest after such a painful journey.”

Francisco Xavier Fragoso is regarded by many to have written the first accurate description of the Cross Timbers.  French explorers made many trips into the Cross Timbers region, however Spain persisted in their attempts to claim these lands and continued to produce increasingly accurate maps of the area. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 which included lands north of the Red River began to bring new interest into the area from the United States.  Naturalist Thomas Nuttall is credited with writing the first descriptions of the vegetation in the Cross Timbers in English.

The earliest settlers in the area could be considered the members of the United States Military.  It was the responsibility of the military to continue to survey the frontier lands for citizens of the United States.  In doing so they would also help to create the wagon roads that would connect these future settlements.  Settlement began in the Cross Timbers region in the late 1840’s.  Both Dallas and Fort Worth were established during this time frame.  The Lower, or Eastern Cross Timbers lays between the two communities with the much larger Upper, or Western Cross Timbers to the northwest of Fort Worth.  Over the next ten to twenty years much of the forested areas began to be cleared for farmland.  Also, other small towns around the Cross Timbers began to develop.  Towns such as Sherman, McKinney and Bonham.  Many of the earliest settlers arrived via foot, horseback, wagon, or steamboat.  Settlement placed a severe strain on the Cross Timbers as wood was used as fuel for cooking, heat and steamboats; construction of homes and tools.  To most settlers the Cross Timbers seemed to be a supply that could never be exhausted.

Settlers traveling west across the Blackland Prairie noticed a striking change when they met the Cross Timbers region.

They commented on how distinct the forest was – as if it was an immense wall of woods stretching from south to north in a straight line.  They called it the “Cast Iron Forest.”

The Cross Timbers bands made travel difficult for settlers, yet the ecosystem provided for their basic needs.  The trees served as a testament to the harshness of the environment.

The areas of ancient Cross Timbers still remaining are some of the last virgin North American hardwood forests.

200 – 300 year old Post Oaks can be found at:

• Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge
• Lake Mineral Wells State Park
• Private land

The existence of ancient Cross Timbers forests is important because they:

• Provide past climate data
• Unaltered biodiversity
• Conservation opportunities
• A link to our past

Fencing & cattle grazing

Exclusion of fire

Privet understory dominating the woods and outcompeting native understory and herbaceous plants, as well as displacing tree recruitment.

Development and urban expansion