Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Texans don’t need much encouragement to kick up their heels and celebrate. And this Saturday, several state parks celebrate May Day and Cinco de Mayo.

Fulton Mansion State Historic Site is a stately, one hundred thirty year old manor, that faces Aransas Bay. And Saturday, May fifth, this jewel of the Gulf Coast Region celebrates spring, with May Day festivities. If you’re so inclined, go ahead and show off the moves you’ve learn on “Dancing with the Stars” when you trip the light fantastic around the maypole. Or play period games with the kiddos, enjoy old-fashioned pie-eating contests and create beautiful flower crafts. There’s live music, a petting zoo…from 10 to 4 pm.

Not to be outdone, Sebastopol House State Historic Site in Seguin, located in the Prairies and Lakes Region of the state, offers it’s version of May Day festivities. It is a free family event packed with music, a maypole dance, demonstrations, a climbing wall, games, free kid’s prizes and much more! Families are invited to come enjoy time together at this historic setting from 11 to 4.

Cinco de Mayo marks the victory of the Mexican Army over the French at the Battle of Puebla. And on Saturday, the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens, offers family activities with a Hispanic theme including games, dancing, music and food, from 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. Reduced admission for adults, and free for kids under 12 years.

For entrance fees and directions to these events, go to the Texas Parks & Wildlife website.

That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

May Day and Cinco de Mayo Celebrations Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Humanities Texas is the state affiliate for of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Executive Director Michael L. Gillette.

We’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit, but every year we receive a grant from the NEH – The National Endowment for the Humanities – and we use that grant to promote the humanities in public programs throughout the state.

The organization recently awarded TPWD a $10-thousand dollar grant to support development of an online education center exploring the history of Texas in the 1930s and 1940s. Gillette says the lack of high quality, primary source material related to Texas in the 20th Century was one reason the project received funding.

So, I think that was very appealing, and the fact that it was truly a statewide project and relates to so many sites throughout the state.

The grant for this project was made possible by the Linden Heck Howell Memorial Fund.

Titled “A New Deal for Texas,” the web pages will feature lesson plans and historical essays that will help students investigate digitized historical images, artifacts and documents relating to New Deal programs in Texas.

One thing that it will achieve is enabling student to recognize the history around them.

Web pages for “A New Deal for Texas” are currently in development.

That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Grant for a New Deal for Texas Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

A 10-thousand dollar grant from the Linden Heck Howell Trust… awarded by Humanities Texas… will make it possible for Parks and Wildlife to develop a project called A New Deal for Texas that highlights the contributions of the Civilian Conservation Corps – or CCC – in our state.

Actually, this is a new kind of project for my division, because it is a curriculum, and it is aimed at seventh grade students and their teachers.

Angela Davis heads interpretive planning for Texas Parks and Wildlife. The project will exist in virtual reality and recount the era when unemployed young men working for the CCC, toiled on conservation and construction projects in State Parks.

Traditionally, my division has done exhibits that would be at a site…but we really wanted to reach out there and touch people who maybe didn’t know about some of the wonderful parks in their very own backyards.

The World Wide Web seemed a good fit.

There’s so much that we can do with the web format. We can stream video. We can stream audio. We’re going to be able to share oral histories; we’re going to be able to share period photographs of depression era workers building the parks. We’re going to be able to share Depression era architectural drawings. So, there are things that we can layer on a website that I could never present in a park – so it’s a great media for interpretation.

The web project A New Deal for Texas will be online later this year. Until then, find information about the CCC on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show for today…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

A New Deal for Texas Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Even though you’ve heard us talk many times about park interpretation, you may still wonder what it really means.

That’s such a good question, and it’s one of the hardest ones to answer.

Angela Davis is head of interpretive planning for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

The word interpretation means a lot of things to a lot of people. But what it means to us – in the most romantic way – is that the parks are one of our most precious recourses… all the things that are in the parks: beautiful scenery, the mountains, the rivers, and of course, our historic structures. But what interpretation does is helps people relate personally to why those resources are significant. Why we – the people of Texas – have chosen to protect them.

Sometimes interpretation involves translating science and history into formats visitors can easily understand.

What we want to do is make the resources – and why they are significant – accessible. To make it fun…to make it enjoyable…to make it relevant…to every person who walks into one of our parks.

Or to everyone who logs onto the Internet…

It’s [the Internet] actually a perfect technology for interpretation.

Tomorrow: details about an online project under development that will breathe fresh life into the New Deal.

That’s our show for today…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Interpreting Texas Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

This month the Barrington Living History Farm at Washington-on-the-Brazos honors 19th Century women with the interactive event “True Texas Women.”

We feel that Texas women were the backbone of the New Republic of Texas. Their stories are not told. You know, the men get the credit- they were the soldiers, the politicians and all. We think that there’s truth that the women kept the home fires burning.

Janice Campbell is a Domestic Interpreter. Visitors will get a hands-on opportunity to learn popular 1800s women’s crafts, and social customs.

Last year, we had an activity that we called “charm strings,” and all this is, is stringing buttons on pieces of thread. Women were doing this in the mid-19th century. It was almost as young boys collecting baseball trading cards today; women were collecting and trading buttons.

True Texas Women allows younger generations to appreciate women who made contributions to our state.

What we’ve seen happen over the years, not only adult women coming and enjoying this event, but we’ve seen groups of young girls. And we want those girls to understand we have a rich woman’s history here in Texas and it’s going to be up to them to carry this on.

True Texas Women is Saturday and Sunday, March 24 and 25th.

That’s our show …with research and writing help from Loren Seeger…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

True Texas Women Play Now | Play in Popup | Download