Palmetto

INTERPRETIVE GUIDE PALME LMET TTO S TAT E P PA A RK Palmetto State Park is a great place to enjoy the natural world around you. Go birding, take a hike or ride a bike on one of the trails, spend the night at one of our campsites or our cabin, or just explore! Any way you choose to experience the park, please enjoy it safely and responsibly! WELCOME STATE TO PARK! PALMETTO SHAKE OFF • Please be safe while swimming or paddling. • Properly dispose of all trash, it can hurt the wildlife. • Please hike on designated trails • Respect wildlife by keeping your dog on a leash. • Please park in designated areas. THE STRESS BY HIKING OUR NEARBY POINTS OF INTEREST TRAILS OR PLAYING IN THE Lockhart State Park 2012 State Park Road, Lockhart, TX 78644 WATERS Luling Lavender Fields 5 Arrow Land, Luling, TX 78648 OF OUR OXBOW LAKE. TAKE IN THE NATURAL BEAUTY OF THE FOREST AND THE LEGACY OF THE CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS (CCC), STILL VISIBLE ALL AROUND Gonzales Memorial Museum and County Jail Museum 414 St. Lawrence Street, Gonzales, TX 78629 Pioneer Village Living History Center 2122 North St. Joseph, Gonzales, TX 78629 Palmetto State Park 78 Park Road 11 South, Gonzales, TX 78629-5180 (830) 672-3266 • www.tpwd.texas.gov/palmetto/ YOU. ENJOY YOUR VISIT! © 2021 TPWD. PWD BR P4505-0049Q (7/21) 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. P A L M E T T O S T A T E P A R K Young men, many in their teens, worked hard building the park and learning life skills at the same time. Buildings like the Refectory and Water Tower are excellent examples of the amount of work, planning and skill that went into it. But other, much more subtle features, like the lake system, are fruits of their labor as well. THEIR LEGACY, YOUR PARK You’re in one of the quintessential parks built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression. As you enjoy the park, think about those young men and the sacrifices they made to bring you this opportunity. That legacy has lived almost one hundred years and, with care, can live at least a hundred more. COME AND HIKE IT! I t won’t take long for you to see what a special place this is. Driving through will give you a brief glimpse of the beauty and diversity found here. Take a closer look by getting out on the trails to see the swamp, river bottom forest, and prairie habitats. The convergence of multiple ecozones in this area makes it unique. From the towering sycamores along the river to the stubby, dwarf palmettos in the swamp. Every turn gives you a look at different species, some found almost nowhere else in Texas. Water shapes the land here and has for millennia. The San Marcos River winds around and through the park, powerfully shaping its banks and bringing nutrients and seeds throughout the park when it floods. Look for stands of cottonwoods or sycamores as good examples of those floods. Up a little higher, in the swamps lie extinct mud boils and artesian wells that once supplied the water to the swamps and lakes. Sadly, with the lowering of the water table, we no longer get to see most of this naturally and must rely on our own wells and rainwater to keep the water flowing.