Fort ParkerInterpretive Guide |
Interpretive Guide of Fort Parker State Park (SP) in Texas. Published by Texas Parks & Wildlife.
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INTERPRETIVE GUIDE
© ROBERT HENSLEY
A
CALM
LAKE
ON
THE
NAVASOTA RIVER, A QUIET
GRAVEYARD
FULL
OF
MEMORIES, SECLUDED SPRINGS
GUARDED BY LARGE BUR OAK
TREES. ALL OF THESE ARE PART
OF THE TRANQUILITY OF FORT
PARKER STATE PARK. YET THE
PARK ALSO REFLECTS THE
CHALLENGES AND CONFLICTS
OF THE PEOPLE WHO LIVED IN
LIMESTONE COUNTY DURING
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE
FRONTIER, THE AFTERMATH OF
RECONSTRUCTION
AND
Fort Parker State Park is a great place to spend the day with
your children. Whether you are looking for a shady picnic
spot with room for the kids to run-and-play, spectacular
hiking trails, or a visit to our Nature Center, there is plenty
of fun for the entire family. Visitors can enjoy fishing,
mountain biking, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, bird-watching,
swimming, and many other outdoor activities. Historic
Springfield Cemetery, located within the park, is a reminder
of a once clamoring city. In 1860, Springfield’s population of
4,537 was over twice the population of Dallas, Texas (2,000)
and rivaling the city of Houston (4,845) at that time. We
offer weekly interpretive programs about the native wildlife
and unique cultural history during peak season. Amenities
include facilities for camping – including a Boy Scout
Wilderness Area, picnicking, family and large group events.
Playgrounds, group barracks and dining hall, open pavilion,
and a recreation hall provide modern comforts for most any
size group. The park’s Annual Trout Clinic is a favorite for
young fishing enthusiasts – what a thrill to catch your first
rainbow trout!
Fort Parker State Park
194 Park Road 28, Mexia, Texas 76667
(254) 562-5751 • www.tpwd.texas.gov/fortparker
Cover photo: Susan Metcalf Loomis, TPWD.
THE
ECONOMIC DEVASTATION OF
THE GREAT DEPRESSION.
© 2019 TPWD. PWD BR P4503-034 (7/19)
In accordance with Texas State Depository Law, this publication is available at
the Texas State Publications Clearinghouse and/or Texas Depository Libraries.
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.
Texas State Parks is a division of the
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
FORT
PARKER
S TAT E PA RK
F O R T
P A R K E R
S T A T E
P A R K
NATURAL CROSSROADS
SPRINGFIELD
Once a bustling county seat boasting a stage
line, college, weekly newspaper and several
hotels, the community of Springfield thrived
from the 1840s through the 1860s.
E
© ROBERT HENSLEY
arly Mexican land grants described plentiful
springs, prairies and woodlands along the
Navasota River. With water and timber
available, pioneers like the John Parker family
claimed the lands at this natural crossroads where
the grasses of the Blackland Prairie mingle with the
woodlands of the Post Oak Savannah. Logs of cedar
were stacked and notched, chinked and daubed to
make cabins. South of the river, the Parker family
built a large stockade to protect their families and
livestock.
The area was also a crossroads for Native Americans.
The Comanche warriors who ruled the Great Plains
crossed the Navasota River north of here to raid the
Parker family stockade. On the morning of May 19,
1836, a band of Comanches, Kiowas and Kichais
attacked the Parker Fort. Five settlers died and
another five were kidnapped, including nine-yearold Cynthia Ann Parker.
But the Civil War changed life in Springfield. Businesses
closed as men joined the Confederate army. After local
plantation owner Logan Stroud read the Emancipation
Proclamation from the steps of his Bur Oak Springs plantation, racial conflicts and martial law plagued the community
during the years of Reconstruction. Springfield found new
life as a community of African-American freedmen after the
railroad bypassed the town for Mexia and Groesbeck.
Today all that remains of
Springfield are the springs and
the cemetery. Towering trees
shade the graves of former
Springfield residents including
plantation owners, AfricanAmerican freedmen, and early
Texas Revolution veterans
Sanders Walker and Joseph
Penn Lynch.
Grave of Logan Stroud’s
infant daughter, 1861.
CAMP MEXIA
With local economies struggling during the Great
Depression, Limestone County businessmen sought a
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp to build a
recreational park near the historic site of Parker’s fort.
The young men of Civilian Conservation Corps Camp
3807 (C) reported to Camp Mexia in July of 1935. The
“C” stood for “Colored,” and 3807 was one of the first
segregated camps of young African-American men. Most of
the two hundred young men were from the Limestone
County area, many the sons of sharecroppers struggling to
The Parker family story is told at the
nearby Old Fort Parker Restoration.
The young men of Civilian Conservation Corps Camp 3807 (C)
built a dam across the Navasota River creating Lake Fort Parker.
survive in farming communities like Mart and Coolidge,
Teague and Springfield. Of the $30 a recruit earned each
month, $25 was sent home to support his family.
Camp Mexia had its own sawmill and limestone quarry,
using local rock and timber to build the park. One of the
camp’s first projects was building a replica of the Parker
stockade and cabins for the Texas Centennial celebration
in 1936. Then Camp Mexia work crews tackled one of
the most ambitious CCC projects in Texas, building a
423-foot dam of limestone, concrete and earth across the
Navasota River, creating 750-acre Lake Fort Parker.
The CCC also built the roads, picnic areas, the park
concession building and bath house. Most of the work
was done by hand, digging with pickaxes and shovels and
hauling rocks and cement in “Georgia buggies,” deep
wheelbarrows with two wheels.
Life wasn’t all work at Camp Mexia. In the evenings, the
men could get passes to go into town or go home. Many
earned their high school diplomas in night classes with
the camp teacher. Occasionally women from Mexia and
Groesbeck were invited to dances on the open terrace of
the concession building. There, camp musicians created
the big band sounds of Count Basie with saxophones,
trumpets and clarinets. CCC men with shoes shined and
ties straight at evening inspections were rewarded with
cake and ice cream on Friday afternoons. Unless they
drew kitchen police duty for disciplinary infractions,
the young men used weekend passes to go home.