Garner State Park

In the 1920s the Magers family, German immigrants on the Frio, opened part of their land to the new car campers, and the cold, clear river did the rest. In 1933 the former county judge C. P. "Pink" Spangler and the county commissioners began promoting a state park here, and several backers bought 478 acres from Fritz Streib at twelve dollars an acre. Spangler went to Washington for approval, and in 1935 a Civilian Conservation Corps camp was set up on the site. John Nance Garner, the vice president from Uvalde, opposed spending federal money on a park in his home county while he was in office; his wife Ettie supported it anyway. The park opened on June 1, 1941, under his name.

CCC Company 879 built it from what was on hand. The crews felled cypress for shingles, beams and doors at a sawmill on site, forged hinges and light fixtures in their own blacksmith shop, and quarried local stone; the great hearth in the old mess hall came out of a creek bed inside the park. The centerpiece is the combination building of native limestone and hewn bald cypress above the river, with its dance terrace.

That terrace is the park's tradition. Since the 1940s young people have gathered on summer evenings to dance to a jukebox there, and they still do. The rest of the day goes to the 2.9 miles of the Frio inside the park's 1,774 acres: swimming, tubing, paddle boats and 16 miles of trails, some climbing to views over the canyon.