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Depression Parks by
Bob Bowman | |
Each
time I head southeast from Lufkin,
a boyhood memory pulls me into a roadside park beside U.S. 287 a few miles before
entering Woodville.
Sprawling
over a wooded hilltop on the west side of the highway, this particular roadside
park was a favorite stop of my father in the l940s each time he headed the family
Ford toward southeast Texas.
The park’s appeal was not its shade or picnic
benches, but in a spring bubbling from the hillside into a rock-lined pool. It
was a place we found ideal for wading or dipping up cold spring water for the
remainder of the trip. It mattered little that strangers and wild animals had
used the pool before us.
Built
in the l930s, the roadside park holds a special place in East
Texas history. It is one of only sixteen Depression-era roadside parks left
in East Texas.
To understand
the significance of these highway landmarks, you have to imagine a time when automobiles
lacked air conditioning, highway travel was young and life moved at a slower pace.
To meet the needs of travelers for places where they could stop for rest
and eat their lunches, Texas began creating roadside parks in the l930s. Built
in typically shady areas, the parks offered drivers and their passengers some
respite on hot summer days. Where natural shade was unavailable, the Texas Highway
Department built shelters and arbors.
Texas started building roadside
parks in 1935 and by 1938 there were 674 such “wayside” parks scattered throughout
Texas. Today, only 41 of the 1930s-style parks still
exist statewide.
Most of the old parks were built by the National Youth
Administration during the Great Depression. The NYA provided employment to young
people between 16 and 25. Lyndon B. Johnson, the nation’s 36th president, was
the first director of the Texas NYA from 1935 to 1937.
Using NYA labor,
the Texas Highway Department launched the parks program to meet the expected influx
of visitors for the 1936 Texas Centennial.
Today, most of the parks are only memories. Some closed when traffic flowed
to newer, faster highways. Others were shut down when they deteriorated and became
maintenance problems. Some became victims of vandalism and vagrancy. |
Today,
East Texas’ remaining Depresssion-era parks supposedly stand in an area stretching
from Hopkins County to Hardin County. Here are their locations (if they are still
there).
Hopkins County: SH 19, 7.5 miles north of Sulphur
Springs, and FM. 67, 3.5 miles west of Weaver.
Franklin County:
U.S. 67, two miles east of Mount
Vernon, and S.H. 37, 7.5 miles north of Winnsboro.
Bowie
County, U.S. 67, 1.5 miles east of Simms.
Cass County, S.H. 49,
1.5 miles northwest of Avinger.
Harrison
County, U.S. 80, eight miles east of Marshall.
Marion County, FM 2208, a half mile east of U.S. 59, south of Jefferson.
Panola County, FM 959, four miles north of Tatum.
Shelby County, U.S. 59, six miles north of Timpson.
Sabine County, SH 184, 4.7 miles west of Hemphill,
and Spur 35, two miles south of its junction with SH 21.
San Augustine
County, SH 21, three miles west of San
Augustine.
Newton County, U.S. 190, three miles southeast of Newton.
Tyler County, U.S. 287, five miles north of Woodville.
Hardin
County, U.S. 69, 10.7 miles southeast of Kountze.
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