A Brief History of Texas State Parks
Friday, July 8th, 2011This is Passport to Texas
If not for the invention of the automobile, we might not have state parks. Our state park guide, Bryan Frazier explains.
The state park system in Texas, this year, is 88 years old. It started back in 1923; Governor Pat Neff was there at the forefront of that. In fact, Mother Neff SP was considered the first state park.
And even though a part of the mission of state parks all over the country—not just in Texas—was to alleviate some of the traffic and pressure on the National parks, it was also to follow the burgeoning automobile industry back in the 1920s and 30s. We had these newfangled inventions called cars, and the tourism initiative was to give these new traveling motorists convenient places to stop and rest and camp and have a picnic and have some pretty scenery to look at.
That’s really the heritage of most state park systems in the United States. And it’s been great; it evolved today here in Texas to be more than 600-thousand acres of beautiful state parks, historic sites, great camping and great fishing. So, it’s origin goes back to that, in the1920s, and it is what it is today thanks to so many people.
Thanks, Bryan.
Learn more about the park system at texasstateparks.org.
That’s our show for today…with funding provided by Chevrolet…building dependable, reliable trucks for more than 90 years.
For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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