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Interpretive Guide of Fort Boggy State Park (SP) in Texas. Published by Texas Parks & Wildlife.
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INTERPRETIVE GUIDE
WE HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR VISIT!
FORT BOGGY STATE PARK EMBRACES
1,847 ACRES OF POST OAK SAVANNAH
AND
PINEY
WOODS
TWO
HOURS
NORTHWEST OF HOUSTON. YOU WILL
SEE
GREAT
BLACK
GUM
TREES,
DOGWOODS, DEWBERRY VINES, HONEYSUCKLE,
LITTLE
BLUESTEM
GRASS,
WHITE-TAILED DEER, SUNFISH, AND
BLACK BASS WITHIN FORT BOGGY’S
LAKE, FOREST, AND PRAIRIE HABITATS.
The park offers many recreation activities, but is also a
nature preserve. Please help us protect its plant and
animal communities by following park rules.
Some potentially harmful plants and animals live in the
park. Walking on the trails will help you see snakes,
feral hogs, and poison ivy before you get too close to
them. Protect both park wildlife and your pets by
keeping your dog on a leash.
Now open seven days a week, Fort Boggy State Park
welcomes you to see and enjoy all that is available for you.
To rent the attractive pavilion and learn of special
events, please call.
FAMILIES ENJOY TENT CAMPING, THE
COMFORT OF THE PARK’S CABINS, COOKOUTS, FISHING, KAYAKING AND HIKING
OR BIKING THREE MILES OF WOODLAND
4994 Highway 75 South
Centerville, Texas 75833
(903) 344-1116
www.tpwd.texas.gov/fortboggy/
AND LAKESIDE TRAILS. FAR AWAY FROM
THE CARES OF THE CITY YOU WILL
FIND A WOODLAND REFUGE SECLUDED
WITHIN THE HEART OF RURAL TEXAS.
© 2022 TPWD. PWD BR P4503-146E (7/22)
TPWD receives funds from the USFWS. TPWD prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, disability, age, and gender,
pursuant to state and federal law. To request an accommodation or obtain information in an alternative format, please contact TPWD on a Text Telephone
(TTY) at (512) 389-8915 or by Relay Texas at 7-1-1 or (800) 735-2989 or by email at accessibility@tpwd.texas.gov. If you believe you have been discriminated against by TPWD, please contact TPWD, 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, TX 78744, or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office for Diversity and
Workforce Management, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041.
This publication can be found at tpwd.texas.gov/park-pubs
FORT
BOGGY
STATE PARK
F O R T
B O G G Y
S T A T E
P A R K
FIELD AND FOREST
RECREATION AND
NATURE WATCHING
OPPORTUNITIES
Fort Boggy State Park offers a wide variety of recreation opportunities. Sullivan Lake invites you to swim,
fish, or paddle. Bring your tent; hike into one of the
park’s five primitive campsites; and take in the vivid
night sky. Or, rent one of the five air-conditioned
cabins beautifully sited between two dry creek beds, and
look out into the forest from the cabins’ wide porches.
Three miles of trails provide hikers and bikers a taste
of the rich ecological diversity found throughout the
park. Birders delight in the many different species that
make migratory stops or nest here for a season. American
crows, red-tailed hawks, great blue herons, eastern
bluebirds, painted buntings, and pileated woodpeckers
all live here. Relax at your campsite and listen for the
eastern screech owls to announce their presence.
Painted buntings
and pileated
woodpeckers
call the park home.
E
Bring a canoe or kayak and see nature
from a whole different perspective.
SULLIVAN LAKE
The clear, cold waters of this spring-fed lake bear the imprint
of both nature and the human hand. Some 75 years ago,
Joe Sullivan impounded a natural spring. Now, black bass,
red-ear sunfish, and blue catfish meander through the hazel
waters, as snapping turtles lie in ambush. Along the shore,
great blue herons probe for a meal and mallard ducks float in
the gentle waves. In autumn, orange, scarlet, and gold color
the trees ringing the lake just before the surrounding forest
invites a new winter. Spring rains raise the lake slowly by
about 20 feet, and trees encircling it sprout their first buds.
ileen Crain Sullivan donated the land that became
Fort Boggy State Park which opened in 2001.
More than 150 years earlier, Texas rangers built a
log fort nearby to protect settlers from raids by native
peoples. Long vanished, the structure was called Fort Boggy
and gives the park its name. With a landscape much modified since the 1840s, today the site contains some old
growth post oak woodlands and prairie openings. TPWD
is in process of restoring some of the park’s earlier landscape.
The park sits astride a dividing point between post oak
savannah and piney woods, a landscape where grasses and
trees compete for dominance. Crowds of native grasses
and sturdy oaks and sweet and black gum trees vie for
control of land and the sunlight. The canopy forms a
cathedral of green that shields hikers and forest animals
from the hot summer sun. The trees appear to swallow
islands of native prairie grasses: look closely at the edge of
the woods and you can observe this process of succession.