Woodlake

After the interurban park closed, Woodlake became a Baptist retreat. Texoma Living says the Texas Electric Railway shut the park in 1929, demolished the casino and shipped the lumber out of the county, and that local residents formed Woodlake, Inc. and bought the grounds. From 1921 to 1954, it adds, thousands of young Baptists attended retreats there. The old dance pavilion became a girls' dormitory, the interurban station a cafeteria, and an open-air tabernacle held services. Members built private cottages, the last interurban trip ran in 1948, and the grounds are private.

What the plaque says

Woodlake In 1900, the New Denison and Sherman Railway Company built a pleasure park on the same site as the company's interurban power plant and offices. Their site lay halfway between the two cities. The interurban line and park opened on May 1, 1901. Guests enjoyed a zoo, an artificial lake with bandstand anchored in the middle, baseball park, dance pavilion and summer theater. The largest structure was a two-story casino, which held events such as dances, Vaudeville acts, conferences and competitions. In 1929, the park was sold to the Woodlake Club, who used it primarily for events such as the annual North Texas Baptist Encampment. Outdoor events ceased in the 1970s, and remaining buildings became privately held by club members. (2024)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site — 3.6 mi
  The small frame house beside the Katy tracks in Denison where Dwight Eisenhower was born in 1890, bought by townspeople in 1946 and given to Texas in 1958.
• Eisenhower State Park — 7.9 mi
  A bluff-top park on Lake Texoma opened in 1958 on land leased from the Corps of Engineers, in the Red River country of Fort Johnson, Colbert's Ferry and the Butterfield stages.
• Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge — 11 mi
  A 1946 refuge on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, laid over land bought for Denison Dam and the site of the vanished railroad town of Hagerman, now a winter stop for geese.
• Choctaw Cultural Center — 20 mi
  The Choctaw Nation's history told from the Chahta side at Calera, with galleries from Nanih Waiya to the Trail of Tears and the reservation today, a living village and daily stickball.

More markers nearby

• First Texas Interurban — 1.0 mi
• Sand Springs — 2.6 mi
• Grayson Bible Baptist Church — 2.9 mi
• Forest Park — 3.7 mi