Brief video of Paula Craig and the First Peoples ceremony to bless the relationship with the land may be seen and heard at the Dallas Morning News website http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/090508dnmettwelvehills.27714a5.html
The longer video of the ceremony later in the day is at the bottom of this post.
Oak Cliff neighborhood celebrates rebirth with Twelve Hills Nature Center
03:23 PM CDT on Friday, September 5, 2008
Paula Craig has seen North Oak Cliff go through a lot of changes in the almost 70 years she has lived there.
She has seen the name Twelve Hills represent crime and urban decay. But today, the neighborhood celebrates rebirth of the rolling terrain of her childhood stomping grounds.
Events ranging from speeches to children shoveling dirt to American Indian ceremonies mark the groundbreaking of a trailhead entrance to the Twelve Hills Nature Center.
"This is about our community being redeemed; it's about new beginnings," said Mrs. Craig, a developmental music consultant and retired school administrator who joined neighbors in leading the charge in establishing the nature center.
The trailhead, to be finished by the end of the year, will consist of three long walls of various rolling elevations made of Texas moss boulders.
Key names in the long history of the land – from the Caddo Indians to neighborhood and civic leaders and major donors for the $230,000 trailhead project – will be engraved on boulders in the front wall. Openings in the walls overlooking the grasslands create a strong sense of arrival into the urban prairie. "The center is a model for all communities," said Carolyn Perna, a neighborhood resident who prepared the design that was developed on a pro-bono basis by the landscape architectural and land planning firm of TBG Partners, where she is an associate. The trailhead, which will provide open-air gathering and learning space for students, scout troops and others, will be the only major permanent structure at Twelve Hills. Mrs. Craig recalls how her childhood friends would explore the rolling terrain, wiling away summer days along the creeks, where foxes still run and various species of birds make their home.
Rosemont Elementary librarian Michelle Touchet read to second-graders at the Twelve Hills Nature Center in North Oak Cliff on Wednesday. The center is hosting groundbreaking ceremonies today for a trailhead, which will be finished by the end of the year. " onclick="return clickedImage(this);" onmouseover=" this.style.cursor='hand'" height="120" width="175">
She bought her home there 40 years ago and reared her two children near the 500-unit Twelve Hills Apartments, which once were considered a great place to live.
But by the 1980s, that had drastically changed.
The apartments became a source of frequent code violation complaints and police calls. Crime worsened, tenants moved out and a federal funding plan to renovate the apartments failed.
After years of debate and discussion, the apartments were torn down in 1992 at a cost of $1.2 million. Ownership of the 20-acre tract of land reverted to the taxing entities – the city, county and school district.
In 2000, neighbors gathered to discuss the fate of the land, tucked behind St. Cecilia Catholic Church and Rosemont Elementary School.
Bebe Gomez, a Girl Scout leader and church member, spoke up when talk turned to developing the land for gated high-end housing or a driving range.
She told them the community didn't need another gate isolating their children.
"Our urban areas are growing and what we need are more outdoor spaces where everyone, especially our children, can gather in community to be at peace and learn about the resources of our land so they can take care of it for the future," Ms. Gomez said.
She struck a chord. Residents formed a nonprofit Twelve Hills Nature Center organization. They raised enough money to purchase more than five acres to create an urban oasis.
The Dallas school district purchased 10 acres to build a second campus for overcrowded Rosemont Elementary. A developer bought five acres for future homes.
Over the last eight years, scouts and volunteers have built birdhouses and cleaned the land on a regular basis. School groups visit the site for lessons about the Blackland Prairie and the environment.
"Our story is one of an underdog grassroots neighborhood community that fought for a vision," said Jennifer Touchet, a founding member of the nature center organization.
That vision is becoming reality now, and it's catching on, Mrs. Craig said.
"In our stressed world, imagine all the things you can learn from being at peace in nature," Mrs. Craig said. "It connects you with the past and points you to the future. There are tons of lessons just waiting to be taught."
Annette Nevins is a freelance writer in Plano.
jmnevins@msn.com
