pre-1840
Southlake sits in a geographic region thick with blackjack and post oak trees and artesian springs. It was acknowledged by 19th century cartographers as the Cross Timbers. This 2004 photo was taken at the Bob Jones Nature Center. Courtesy Bob Koonz
The Cross Timber region of North America runs 350 miles through Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.
In the 1830s, American writer Washington Irving visited the now-Irving area and described the Cross Timbers as "forests of cast iron."
George Catlin painting, "Caddo Indian Chasing Buffalo, Cross Timbers," 1846-1848, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum
"A Deer Drive in the Texas 'Cross Timber'" by Frenzeny & Tavernier, 1874.
"The Cast Iron Forest," written by Richard V. Francaviglia, is a rich study of the unique regional Cross Timbers in which present-day Southlake sits.