Data Centers Near Dinosaur Valley: What Is Proposed Beside the Paluxy River Tracks

For more than a century, people have come to the Paluxy River near Glen Rose, Texas, to see footprints in stone. This year a new question has reached the valley: data centers, the large computer campuses behind cloud services and artificial intelligence.

Online, it can sound as if the tracks are about to be paved over. They are not. But two real projects are planned close to Dinosaur Valley State Park, and residents of Somervell and Hood counties are debating them seriously. Here is what has been reported as of September 29, 2026.

What is proposed

Black Mountain, on the park’s northern edge

At a packed Glen Rose meeting on June 16, the project at the forefront, KERA News reported, was “a proposed 450-acre data center bordering the northern part of Dinosaur Valley State Park,” led by Fort Worth-based Black Mountain. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that a Black Mountain Power subsidiary received a state air permit in February 2025 for a gas-fired power plant bordering the park’s northeast side. The TCEQ registration, filed January 16, 2025, describes two power blocks with three gas turbines each.

Reported sizes differ: Protect the Paluxy Valley, the local opposition group, lists 1,600 acres and 800 megawatts, while the ERCOT queue lists 495.3 megawatts. The group notes that “no concept plans or site development plans have been publicly disclosed.” For now, the data center is a proposal.

Comanche Circle, about four miles away

The most closely watched project is Comanche Circle, a 2,100-acre campus planned by Florida-based Sailfish Investors on the Hood–Somervell county line near Tolar. According to the Star-Telegram, it is about four miles from the park. The project’s 2026 timeline:

• June 9: Hood County commissioners voted 3–1 to approve the concept plan without conditions. As KERA explained, “additional engineering, drainage, water, wastewater and environmental reviews are required before construction can begin.”
• June 18: NRG asked to withdraw its air permit application for the gas plant meant to power the campus. NRG told KERA this was part of its normal review. Opponents point to more than 11,000 comments filed against the permit.
• August 18: Gov. Greg Abbott announced that Comanche Circle had said it will comply with his data center directives. Sailfish managing partner Ryan Hughes said the project was designed around “privately funded infrastructure, dedicated onsite generation, closed-loop cooling, and real separation from residential neighbors.” Protect the Paluxy says it has no approved water source or power connection.
• September 8: Commissioners moved their data center item, including Comanche Circle, to October 13 so a public hearing could be properly advertised.

No project sits on the tracks

None of the reported projects is on the track sites. The famous tracks lie in the riverbed inside the state park. The concern is what could reach the river from upstream and next door:

• Runoff. Protect the Paluxy says runoff from Comanche Circle would enter the Paluxy above the tracks and could cover them in silt. Fort Worth Weekly reports that the project proposes draining wastewater into the river north of the tracks. Hughes has told the Star-Telegram that the project will not harm the Paluxy.
• Water. “Groundwater is one of our most valuable resources,” Kathy Turner Jones of the Middle Trinity Groundwater Conservation District said at the June meeting. State Rep. Helen Kerwin added: “We cannot create new aquifers.”
• Light and noise. Resident Mark Kinney told KERA his worries were “water, the noise, the light pollution, the construction and how long that’s going to be.”

On May 11, Somervell County commissioners unanimously passed a resolution opposing new data centers until the Legislature addresses water and energy concerns. Supporters point to the economic benefits. Hughes has said Comanche Circle “will bring substantial private investment, broaden the local tax base, support Tolar ISD and create long-term benefits for landowners, taxpayers and the broader community.”

Why the Paluxy tracks matter

According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, a 1908 flood scoured the riverbed, and a year later nine-year-old George Adams found large three-toed tracks. Nearly 20 years after that, R. T. Bird of the American Museum of Natural History saw one in a New Mexico shop, came to Texas, and found sauropod tracks beside the theropod tracks. The park calls them “the first proof that sauropods walked on land.” The park opened in 1972 and is a National Natural Landmark.

Bird’s famous “chase sequence” shows a group of sauropods with at least one theropod following. It was lifted from the river slab by slab and reassembled in New York and Austin.

The “man tracks”

Some elongated prints were long called “man tracks.” Creationists popularized them as human footprints alongside dinosaur tracks, notably in Stanley Taylor’s film Footprints in Stone and John D. Morris’s 1980 book Tracking Those Incredible Dinosaurs and the People Who Knew Them. Dennis R. Petersen’s Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation includes a section headed “The Paluxy tracks: the case is still open.”

Creation researchers also re-examined their own evidence. After fieldwork in 1985, Morris wrote for the Institute for Creation Research that “none of the four trails at the Taylor site can today be regarded as unquestionably of human origin” and that “it would now be improper for creationists to continue to use the Paluxy data as evidence against evolution.” He noted open questions and wrote: “We stand committed to truth.”

The mainstream explanation is that the elongated prints are dinosaur tracks. Researcher Glen Kuban found three-toed impressions at the front of most of them. A 2022 study by Lallensack, Farlow and Falkingham argued that the feet sank deep into soft mud that then partly closed over the toe marks. Other supposed man tracks are attributed to erosion, or to carvings sold during the Depression. Creation Ministries International now calls the claim doubtful, saying “there is a need for properly documented research on the tracks.” We agree with that care. Either way, this riverbed is a remarkable record of animals God made, and it is worth protecting.

How to follow the issue

• Hood County Commissioners Court meets the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 9:00 a.m. at the Ralph H. Walton Jr. Justice Center, 1200 W. Pearl St., Granbury, and streams its sessions. Agendas are posted 72 hours ahead, so check the posted agenda for October 13.
• Somervell County posts agendas, minutes and video on its meeting portal.
• Visit the park and walk the riverbed yourself.

If you attend a hearing, be courteous, stick to the facts, and listen to neighbors who see it differently. We will update this article as decisions are made.

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