The grounds are rugged, there aren't any pathways and the dead leaves from last fall crunch under our shoes. We have just entered the original 39 acres acquired in 1912 to build a city park and garden in Fort Worth—Rock Springs Park. Unused, the Rock Springs have literally fallen by the wayside of the newer Botanic Gardens.
But all of this is about to change. On a hot Friday morning in August a group of people gather at the edge of the manicured rose garden in Fort Worth's Botanic Gardens to witness the dedication and renewal of this forgotten plot of land—by mid-2014 this patch of history will have four new lakes, walking paths and several new bridges.
Lifelong Fort Worth resident John Tinsley left $2.2 million this year to go back to the city he grew up in and loved so much. John loved being outside in nature, and more specifically, adored gardening like his parents—Victor and Cleyone Tinsley, the soon-to-be-renewed land's namesake. John also never had children, so when he left his brother, Vic Tinsley, as executor of his will, he knew what to do with it.
“The instructions in his will to me were to provide funds for a ‘building or garden,' and when I contacted the [Botanical Garden] Society…[they] were seeking funds for restoration of the Rock Springs area,” Tinsley said. “I believed that that project would be exciting to John, thus agreed to finance it and to provide for future maintenance [and] improvements to the area.”
But John also had a history with the gardens. In his lifetime he paid for the planting of trees in memory of “two special female friends who had predeceased him,” his brother Vic said. He also served on the board for the Fort Worth Botanical Society, as well as finished his Master Gardner classes just before he died.
And it is people like the Tinsleys that have made this now 109-acre nationally recognized garden, and historical landmark what it is today. Richard Zavala, Fort Worth parks and community services director, said a little bit of vision, fate, good business, and individuals giving part of themselves for the good of the community is what it took to build the utopia just west of downtown.
“If we hadn't gotten those 33 acres, where would we be standing now,” Zavala said.
Henry Painter, the Fort Worth garden director, said they also have plans to make the Rock Springs an educational program where teachers can bring children to learn about native plants and animals.
