Whoops DEAD WRONG: Bad assumptions, ignorance played havoc with old city cemetery

The messy past of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum grounds is coming to the surface, and it’s getting in the way of the future.

For 40 years it has been known as Fort Fisher, a tree-shaded riverside park that centers around Waco’s most popular museum. Until recent years, the 35-acre site also housed a major RV park and was the grounds of the Brazos River Festival.

It now appears Fort Fisher may sit atop hundreds of deceased Wacoans, including rich and poor, Confederate soldiers, a World War II veteran and a former slave who became a Texas legislator. Burials range from 1856 to 1966, archives show, contradicting city leaders’ speculations that the cemetery was abandoned since the early 20th century.