- City:
- Cameron, TX
- Site Type:
- Parks and Recreation
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Civil Works Administration (CWA)
- Completed:
- 1934
- Quality of Information:
- Moderate
- Marked:
- Yes
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
Civil Works Administration funded improvement work at Wilson-Ledbetter Park in Cameron. Lizzy Batey Ledbetter deeded the twenty-five acres of land for Wilson-Ledbetter Park to the City of Cameron in 1914.
An excerpt from the state historical marker at the site reads:
“The Cameron Herald reported on November 16, 1933 that the Civil Works Administration (CWA), a federal new deal program, would fund improvements at the park and provide work for hundreds of unemployed men. The Herald reported on May 2, 1935 that “when the Texas centennial celebration is held in Texas in 1936, Cameron should have one of the most beautiful parks in the state to contribute to the beauty spots in Texas.” The CWA project included thousands of tons of native petrified wood, sand rock and oak logs to build clubhouses, barbecue pits, bridges, tables and seats, and for erosion control along creeks and a five-acre lake stocked with fish. A cabin was also built for a park caretaker, a position still active in the 1950s.”
Source notes
Texas Historic Sites Atlas:
(https://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/Details/5507017666), accessed April 18, 2018.
Site originally submitted by Larry Moore on April 18, 2018.
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