118 Texas Rd, Big Spring, TX 79720
When the Civilian Conservation Corps built Big Spring State Park in the 1930s, they included some landscaping, but the focus was on buildings and facilities, and on filling the lake. Then in the 1940s and 1950s the lake was drained for agriculture. The lake filled again in the 1970s, and in the 1990s it became a great place for whitewater rafting.
It was already a good place for boating and fishing, but when the Civilian Conservation Corps built the park in the 1930s, they didn’t include hiking trails or playgrounds or swimming areas. They didn’t think of Big Spring State Park as a place to bring children, although, as we will see, that was exactly its destiny.
There was one other thing the Civilian Conservation Corps did, and that is the story of Big Spring State Park. They built a small dam about half a mile downstream from the spring. They built it so that the water could flow into the lake, but it would not flow out. According to legend, they built the dam to keep it from overflowing in the spring’s dry season, and when that didn’t work, they filled the dam with dirt and water, and it held.
Big Spring State Park is not all that big. It is small, compared to state parks, but Big Spring State Park is 10 times larger than the original spring. The spring is fed by a 1,500-foot-deep aquifer, 200 feet thick. The spring itself is a constant 100 to 120 degrees, and the water rises and falls 100 feet every 12 hours. The spring is 10 times larger than the original spring, but the original spring is ten times larger than Big Spring State Park.
Big Spring State Park is 1,185-acre park located near the spring-fed city of Big Spring, Texas. The park, established in 1926, contains Big Spring, the headwaters of the Brazos River, and 412 acres of river frontage along the Brazos River. The park is also home to Big Spring Caverns, which provides visitors with an underground adventure of 1.3 miles through caverns that reach depths of 160 feet and include an underground boat ride. A visitor center, gift shop, and nature trails are also located within the park.
The park is open year-round, with wildlife viewing year-round. Wildlife frequently seen at the park include deer, wild turkeys, and bobcats. The park offers 52 campsites and 11 primitive campsites. The park offers 13 miles of hiking trails for hiking, nature viewing, and birdwatching.
The park offers several educational programs. The Nature Finder program helps visitors learn about animals in the park. The Junior Ranger program allows visitors to learn about how the park’s plants and animals live.
Just outside of Austin, just past 290, Texas Highway 290, there is a state park called Big Spring.
Big Spring State Park is 2,700 acres. It has hiking trails, swimming holes, a nature center, and a campground.
But Big Spring State Park wasn’t always a state park.
When Texas was under Mexican control, there was a large Spanish ranch, Hacienda de Chapultepec. It was a really huge ranch. It covered 30,000 acres, and at its peak it employed 1,000 people. The ranch was unusually productive, with 300 head of cattle, 2,000 sheep, 300 goats, 100 horses, 1,000 pigs, and 1,000 chickens. When the ranch was broken up, most of the property went to private ownership, but 10,000 acres remained with the state government, which created Big Spring State Park.
Another Great Attraction in Big Spring TX
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