Fort Boggy

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.