Outdoor Learning Center History

A Texas Education requires a Texas-size classroom, and in the Fort Worth ISD, that facility is the Truelson-Hightower Outdoor Learning Center.

The 228-acre facility on the northwest shore of Eagle Mountain Lake was once the homestead of the Pope family, who came to North Central Texas from Tennessee in the mid-1800s. More than 35 years ago, Eugene Hightower, Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Julius Truelson, businessman Ross Perot and the Tarrant Regional Water District turned this rolling landscape into an outdoor classroom for local children.

"Come forth into the light of things, / Let Nature be your teacher," the poet William Wordsworth wrote. At the Outdoor Learning Center, the tree-topped hills, the stretches of prairie, and the lake and pond shores of the Lone Star State become teachers for young and old.