One of the first places I visited when started this journey was Bastrop State Park, near Austin. I had already begun a love affair with state parks, in particular Texas parks, but something about Bastrop took that to a new level.
The natural beauty of the park, with it's huge population of pine trees, and fantastic overlooks from the many hills and mesas, is enough to take you breath away. But the architecture of the structures in the park just called to me.
I've always been a fan of the Art Deco and Craftsman movements of the 1930's, and love those styles of buildings. And that look was evident in the buildings at Bastrop and it's sister park Buescher.
You see, those parks, along with over 25 others in Texas, as well as lots of parks across the U.S. were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, a program instituted during the 30's depression era designed to give young men a job during hard times while giving something back to the country. The CCC was one of a whole "alphabet soup" of programs operating during the New Deal era of Franklin Roosevelt. Among those were the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Civilian Works Administration (CWA) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
Anyway, I was so enamored with the buildings of Bastrop, I started to look into the CCC parks of Texas, and eventually visited a few more, including Abilene, Ft. Parker and Indian Lodge. Heck, my volunteer stints at Caddo Lake were, at least in part, driven by the CCC presence there.
So after my long hiatus setting up Home Base Quitman (see the updates in posts elsewhere), I decided to get back on the road, and what better way thank to spend a few weeks checking out more of these incredible parks? So I started doing my research and planning the trip. I had plans made to stop at 10 or so CCC parks. But you know the whole thing about best laid plans?
Things got complicated pretty much from day one. And not in a bad way. I booked a few days at Lake Mineral Wells State Park in what was supposed to be just a wayside stop. On the first day there I noticed that the park store looked familiar. Then I saw the stairs headed from the group building to the water. And on a hike I went up to an overlook. All of these things had the telltale design of CCC.
OK, so I'm on a CCC park tour, right?What's the big deal?
The problem is Lake Mineral Wells is NOT listed as a CCC park! So I started asking questions. I talked to the store manager, a ranger at headquarters and others but nobody could tell me how the buildings were built, and whether they were done by the CCC.
Then I talked to the Park Historian and he (sorta) clued me in. Here's the thing: The park wasn't built by the CCC. And despite exhaustive research he hasn't been able to pinpoint exactly who built it. But what he did find was some old materials records from the CWA from about the same time. But there is no record of them actually working there. And while the CCC was in Mineral Wells and worked on the a few other projects, including a Home Economics building and an amphitheater, they weren't there long enough to build the park.
Not one to pass up a chance to go down a rabbit hole, I started digging. And while I still haven't tied up the mystery of Lake Mineral Wells (give me time!), I have decided to expand my travels a bit and start looking at more New Deal projects.
And so my trip has expanded form CCC Parks to New Deal Parks and More. I've already found some neat stuff, from the Silver Falls rest area to Haskell High School, as well as the aforementioned sites in Mineral Wells. And I'm just getting started.
The pics to the left are some "bonus finds": The small building is from Ft. Wolters, the next is the Home Economics building, then the Amphitheater, all in Mineral Wells. Next are the High School and a bridge from Haskell. And finally a picnic area, bridge and fountain from the Silver Spring rest area near Crosbyton. These are a mix of CCC and WPA projects.
That's it for now. Next stop is Palo Duro State Park. Until then...
Later, folks.
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