GARNER DANCE PAVILION: Inner tubes, dancing shoes ... and 
a special place on the Frio River ... ahead on Passport to 
Texas
___________________________________________________________

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

What do inner tubes and dancing shoes have in common? 
You'll make good use of both at Garner State Park, along 
the Frio river in Concan.

People tube all day and dance all night. :03

Dances have been an integral part of the Garner 
experience since the first dance in 1941 at its riverfront 
pavilion, says park superintendent Craig VanBaarle.

And that's what we brag about; we've never stopped having the 
dances. I imagine at one time it was a live band, but now it's a 
jukebox, and it's been a jukebox for many a year. :10

Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the mid-1930's, 
the Garner State Park dance pavilion draws huge 
intergenerational crowds to the dances.

Anywhere between 800 and a thousand people come to the 
dance. The majority of the folks come in from outside the park. 
They have been doing it, their grandparents did it, and now 
sometimes it's three and four generations that we have here 
that have been coming to Garner. :17

The first dance of the season is during spring break, with 
weekend dances throughout the summer. 

Once we get into summer, which is Memorial weekend, through 
Labor Day weekend, we have dances every night, and they start 
whenever somebody starts putting money in the jukebox, and 
they finish at eleven o'clock. :12

Will work to stabilize the banks of the Frio River interfere 
with this year's dancing fun? Find out tomorrow.

That's our show for today ... for Texas Parks and 
Wildlife ... I'm Cecilia Nasti.