Old drive-In could become gas drilling site

The old Fort Worth Twin Drive-In off of Interstate 30 might soon become a gas drilling site.

Dallas-based natural gas producer Dale Resources, which has been actively drilling in the Barnett Shale, has purchased land along I-30 at Riverside Drive near downtown that once housed the Fort Worth Twin Drive-In theater decades ago.

The company says it does not know what it will do with the land, but it will likely be a drilling site.

Dale, a privately-held company, has been actively drilling in Fort Worth, particularly in the Trinity River basin. It holds the leases with the city of Fort Worth for Gateway Park, across I-30 on Beach Street, a short distance from the Twin Drive-In.

And, it is installing a drill site on East Fourth Street, to drill in the nearby Greenway Place neighborhood near downtown.

Dale Resources acquired the 15.5 acres at Riverside Drive and Bomar Street from SC Energy in Fort Worth, headed by Brad Hickman, in May.

Since the theater closed, believed to be in the late 1970s, the land had become a field of overgrown trees, brush and debris.

Dale Resources had cleared away a couple of acres to have access to the property, but it recently completed clearing the entire tract at the request of the Fort Worth Police Department because vagrants were living there, said David Buchanan, director of community affairs at Dale Resources.

Buchanan said the next step will be to survey the land, but that no other plans have been made for the property at this time.

”It is an acreage of land that has different possibilities,” Buchanan said. ”We’ll do what’s best for the community.”

Drive-in theaters were at their height of popularity in the 1950s, and the Fort Worth Twin was no exception.

The Fort Worth Twin opened in 1953, and at the time was believed to be the largest twin-screened theater in the world, according to Star-Telegram archives.

It was large enough for 1,500 cars and was built by Leon Theaters of Dallas. The screens that were erected on opposite ends of the lot are still standing. Buchanan said he did not know whether the screens will be taken down.

Source: www.dfw.com