DAVID STONE | OUR TOWN

Temple will host a site dedication on Nov. 14 to commemorate the new location of the Battle of Bird Creek historical marker that experts say is a safer place for visitors and true to the battle’s location.

According to Kelly Trietsch Atkinson, the city’s assistant director of planning, the marker has been located on Nugent for decades, but it will be moved about 100 feet to allow safer and more convenient access..

There are actually two markers in Temple that detail the May 26, 1839, battle between Texas Rangers led by Capt. John Bird and a coalition of about 250 Comanche, Kickapoo and Caddo warriors. While one marker was located near Bird Creek — named in honor of Capt. Bird — on Nugent Avenue west of I-35, the other is located near the northwest corner of West Adams and I-35 South.

Megan Price, public relations coordinator for the city, said the free ceremony will be at 2 p.m. Nov. 14 at 2110 W Nugent Avenue, located near the Willow Glenn Subdivision.

The ceremony was originally set for last spring but was moved because of severe thunderstorms that struck the area May 22.

“The city invites the public to attend the Bird Creek Battleground Site Dedication to help celebrate the importance of the new location and the new elements being added to create a space where visitors can learn about the battle, a momentous historical event in Temple,” Price said.

According to Atkinson, the decision to move the Nugent Avenue marker was made after the city and the Bell County Historical Commission received phone calls requesting that the marker be moved to a more accessible location that would retain its accuracy.

“With the  improvements we are making to this new site, we hope to create a more accessible and  informative historical location that honors the legacy of the Battle of Bird Creek.”

“The monument was close to the road and there was really no place to park at the site,” she said. “ We decided to move it about 100 feet to the new Willow Glen subdivision.”

The Battle of Bird Creek may have been a revenge attack by the Indians against perceived aggression by Bird and another Ranger.

Mexico had lost its battle for Texas in 1836 but the Mexican government was intent on reclaiming the lost land. The Cordova Rebellion, which aligned the Mexican Army and various Indian tribes against Texans, was designed to accomplish that feat.

In May 1839, Bird and about 50 men left Fort Milam near present-day Marlin (about 36 miles northeast of present-day Temple), escorting a handful of soldiers to Bastrop to face court martial charges. They arrived at Fort Little River, which was abandoned at that time, and Bird turned the prisoners over to Lt. James Irvin and a dozen men for the trip to Bastrop.

Bird and his second-in-command, Nathan Brookshire, escorted the men a few miles, then turned back for Fort Little River. On the way back to the fort, they startled three Indians skinning a buffalo on the prairie.

Bird and Brookshire confiscated the meat, returned to Little River, and saddled up the next day in search of the Indians. They found a small force and chased them smack dab into a trap just west of where today’s Nugent Avenue crosses I-35 in what is now Temple.

Bird's men found themselves outnumbered 20-to-1 by the coalition force. The Rangers were able to make it to a creek bed and hunkered down. The Indians charged twice, and the Rangers repelled both charges.

After the Indians had dropped back the second time, Bird mounted his horse and charged out of the creek bank to encourage his men, only to be struck in the heart by an arrow fired from about 200 yards away.

While the distance of the great shot is often debated by historians, the battle was on, and when it ended Bird, Sgt. William Weaver, Jesse Nash, HMC Hall and Thomas Gay were dead, but the Rangers losses paled in comparison to Indian casualties.

Most historians believe five Rangers and somewhere between 30 and 100 Native Americans were killed.

The new site is in an area that is home to 200-year-old trees that may have been present during the intense battle. In addition to the monuments, the site will feature five limestone benches and signage that provides information about the tribes involved in the fight.