Cleburne Times-Review
As we cruise our interstate highway system today we often find roadside parks, or rest areas, as they are now known. Many of these have fully equipped restroom facilities along with cold drink and snack dispensing machines. These things we now expect as we travel, but when did they start and what were they like?
During the early part of the 20th century, America was fascinated by the new-fangled contraption called the automobile. Some of the first ones weren’t much more than oversized toys; but they were fun to ride around town in.
As more companies started making automobiles, they became more dependable and more suited for long-distance travel. We are all familiar with Ford, Chevrolet and Chrysler, but do you remember the DeSoto, Franklin, Hudson, Nash, Packard and Studebaker, among others?
By the 1930s America was becoming more paved, all-weather roads, making it easier to travel by car. These were all narrow two-lane roads but sufficient for the amount of cars on the road at that time.
Everything seemed to be coming together to make travel by automobile more pleasurable. But wait, there was still something missing.
None of the cars at that time had air conditioning. Several hours on the road in the Texas heat during the summer could be pretty miserable. A large shade tree along the roadside was a welcome site to stop and cool off.
By 1935 Texas had started making plans for a Texas Centennial celebration in Dallas in 1936. They were expecting a large influx of visitors to Texas for the centennial celebration. Roadside parks along our highways would be an added convenience for these visitors.
President Roosevelt’s New Deal program, The Works Progress Administration, began in 1935. The National Youth Administration was a part of the WPA. The NYA provided employment to young people between the ages of 16 and 25 who were not full-time students or already employed. On average, the young men worked two weeks each month for $17 per month.
Lyndon Baines Johnson, later the 36th president of the United States, served as the first director of the Texas branch from 1935-37.
The NYA paid for the labor to construct the roadside parks, and the highway department was responsible for providing the plans, supervision, materials and equipment.
Having been constructed in the then popular “rustic” style, Depression-era picnic areas can be recognized by their masonry furnishings. The picnic tables and benches, barbeque pits, pathways and rubbish burners were all constructed of stone and concrete.
The construction of park facilities was quite labor-intensive. NYA workers usually quarried and dressed their own stone. No heavy equipment was used; most of the work was done by hand.
The land for the picnic areas was either donated to the state by the land owner or was purchased by the county or a civic club and donated to the Texas Highway Department. Picnic areas ranged in size from less than an acre up to several acres. Some of the smaller park areas had only one picnic table, while the larger ones had several tables.
An article in the September 1936 issue of Texas Parade magazine describes the picnic areas:
“As the wanderer in the desert welcomes the oasis, so the Texas motorist hails with joy these little off-the-road nooks which offer rest and relaxation after a ride in the broiling sun.”
Placed mainly in shaded areas, these roadside oases offered drivers and their passengers a little respite on hot summer days. Where no trees were available for shade, shelters or arbors were built.
The roadside park project began in 1935, and by the end of 1938 there were 674 roadside parks across Texas.
As roads have changed over the years, many of these early roadside picnic areas have disappeared. I remember one being on the old U.S. 67, now County Road 200, in Somervell County about a half mile this side of the Brazos River. It consisted of a single picnic table beneath some live oak trees. This table disappeared many years ago, apparently because of the ravages of vandals.
Other picnic areas were constructed in the late 1940s, using the same masonry construction techniques as was used in the 1930s.
Two of these parks are near Glen Rose. One is on U.S. 67 about a mile west of the Johnson-Somervell County line, and the other is on Texas 144 a few miles north of U.S. 67. Another one of these parks with a great view is the one on top of Chalk Mountain west of Glen Rose.
Youth during the Depression era, working through the NYA, made a lot of improvements to our countryside.