Why is it called ‘Panther Island?’ You can thank Fort Worth’s old rivalry with Dallas.
What we now call “Panther Island” — Fort Worth’s future entertainment, residential and commercial district near downtown — started out with a very different name.
We can thank Fort Worth’s age-old rivalry with Dallas as one of the reasons for why it changed.
The idea of revitalizing the city’s neglected riverfront emerged in spring 2001 with something called “Trinity River Vision.” In a nutshell, it was a study into why Fort Worth didn’t have an active “destination” riverfront like Austin’s Lady Bird Lake.
“Some people come and go from Fort Worth without knowing the river was here in the first place,” one official lamented to a Star-Telegram reporter in 2001.
Fast forward a couple of years, and the revitalization project became known as “Trinity Uptown” — a whole new 800-acre district on the riverbank north of downtown.
After a while, though, “uptown” didn’t sit right with some folks. For one thing, a lot of cities have “uptowns” — not the least of which is Dallas.
And who wants to be like Dallas?
So by 2013, someone with Trinity River Vision Authority came up with idea of rebranding it “Panther Island.” It seemed to make sense — Fort Worth is known as Panther City, dating back to an 1870s legend, and the project would indeed be on an island once a new river channel is dug.
Plus, no other cities had a “Panther Island.”
The Star-Telegram even took a poll of readers about the name. Some 63% said they liked it, we reported in 2014.
“I think Panther Island is a unique destination,” said a Trinity River Vision Authority board member, when the final decision. “And ‘uptown’ is more of a generic term.”
No offense, Dallas.
This story was originally published March 14, 2024 at 9:39 AM.
