One of the brochures we found called this a pond. Anywhere else it would be a lake. As Gregory Peck said in one in of my favorite 1950s westerns: "Its a big country." Ponds here are lakes anywhere else. It's a big country.
We happened upon this county park only because it showed up on our maps program. It didnt show up anywhere else, despite the fact that Vicky scours the internet while we travel looking for parks. So we drove here to see what it was all about, and found a hidden gem.
The park is maintained by a private company, which is actually a couple from the area. We had several discussions with the woman who runs it who obviously has a lot of pride in her work and in the area. She does a lot of work on the Kiowa history of the region, and is in the process with others of creating information signs about that history.
She explained that the main building was built by the good old reliable Civilian Conservation Corps. We had guessed as much from the type of structure. But what fun it was for us to find another of these treasures, in the Texas panhandle of all places. Several years ago several early photos of the CCC and this place were found. Very exciting.
The floor was from an old gymnasium. It was beautiful,
There was a lot of civic pride reflected in this county park, including a gazebo where local citizens could purchase pavers. It was actually very moving.
The park has a rule we like--no open alcohol containers. That keeps it from being a loud party destination like, for example, Joshua Tree National Park becomes on the weekends.
Although there does not appear to be an official hiking trail around the pond/lake, the helpful hosts said we could go anywhere in the park, including into a protected habitat area. One of the hosts said a Puma often visited the area, although she had not seen it for awhile. We thought "cool!"
That night we watched an early 1940s movie titled, appropriately, Texas, with a very young William Holden and Glenn Ford.
The next day we took a hike around the area, and it was actually pretty nice, although we didn't see the Puma.
We did see a ball field that looked like it hadn't been used in years. I guess they built it but nobody came.
We ran into deer.
We thought we could hike around the lake, but found we couldn't. So had to more or less retrace our steps.
We sighted our camper across the "pond."
Note to myself: Don't plant a tree next to our windmill.
Vicky spotted a dead locust (Cicada):
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