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James Wright Steely

Parks for Texas: Enduring Landscapes of the New Deal (Clifton and Shirley Caldwell Texas Heritage Series) Hardcover – March 1, 1999

by James Wright Steely (Author)

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State parks across Texas offer a world of opportunities for recreation and education. Yet few park visitors or park managers know the remarkable story of how this magnificent state park system came into being during the depths of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Drawing on archival records and examining especially the political context of the New Deal, James Wright Steely here provides the first comprehensive history of the founding and building of the Texas state park system.

Steely's history begins in the 1880s with the movement to establish parks around historical sites from the Texas Revolution. He follows the fits-and-starts progress of park development through the early 1920s, when Governor Pat Neff envisioned the kind of park system that ultimately came into being between 1933 and 1942.

During the Depression an amazing cast of personalities from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson led, followed, or obstructed the drive to create this state park system. The New Deal federal-state partnerships for depression relief gave Texas the funding and personnel to build 52 recreational parks under the direction of the National Park Service. Steely focuses in detail on the activities of the Civilian Conservation Corps, whose members built parks from Caddo Lake in the east to the first park improvements in the Big Bend out west. An appendix lists and describes all the state parks in Texas through 1945, while Steely's epilogue brings the parks' story up to the present.

Print length

274 pages
Language

English
Publisher

University of Texas Press
Publication date

March 1, 1999
Dimensions

6.06 x 1 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0292777345
ISBN-13

978-0292777347
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About the Author

James Wright Steely of Austin is Chief Historian at the Texas Historical Commission.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Texas Press; 1st edition (March 1, 1999)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 274 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0292777345
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0292777347
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.7 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.06 x 1 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,888,712 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,133 in Landscape
- #4,572 in Natural Resources (Books)
- #11,733 in Environmentalism

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Historian*123

A Treasure for Us Now And for Future Generations

Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2011

Whether your history teacher in high school left you believing history was the dullest subject in the universe, or you are an avid lover of history, this book is for you. Not only Texans and all who visit Texas Parks but all Americans benefit if they know history about their country and the Great Depression which preceded World War II. James Wright Steely has done an incredible amount of research of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) with amazing thoroughness. CCC records are among the most difficult to locate as they are scattered, fragmented, or missing. A gifted writer, Steely presents an organized, smooth-flowing history through local and federal politics and interested persons who saw the value of preserving our natural resources. Journalism and history majors enhance his innate ability. From the introduction to the last appendix, this book will keep the reader's attention. James Wright Steely has brilliantly shown the adage, "the more a person learns, the more he realizes he has yet to learn." Although I am considered a CCC historian, this is certainly true for me. Parks for Texas can be considered the Bible of Texas CCC and Texas Parks history. If I could, I would give this book 10 stars.

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Parks for Texas: Enduring Landscapes of the New Deal (Clifton and Shirley Caldwell Texas Heritage Series) Hardcover – March 1, 1999

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