IMAGINE YOU’RE OVERWORKED, SCRAPING TO MAKE ENDS MEET.
The economy is in free fall despite new developments in technology allowing you to work more efficiently, accomplishing in an hour what previously might have required days. The country has just waged a long campaign against an unseen enemy that killed millions around the globe. But in Texas, the governor feels your pain and speaks eloquently to your fatigue. Such was the milieu in May 1923, when Gov. Pat Neff enabled legislation for the formation of the Texas State Parks system and donated his own property to the nascent endeavor.
“Nothing is more conducive to the happiness and contentment of a people, a State’s most valuable asset, than for them to go ‘back to nature,’” Neff wrote in a letter to the 38th Texas Legislature, “where the bees hum, the birds sing, the brooks ripple, the breezes blow, and the flowers bloom. Here, spending their hours of recreation on blue-bonneted hills and daisy-decked meadows … the old grow young, the sick regain health, and the weary enjoy a quiet rest.”
Neff knew from experience. For years, travelers had stopped at his family’s ranch along the Leon River, where they were greeted with hospitality by his mother, Isabel Neff. While there, the visitors delighted in the sorts of activities we like to ascribe to slower, better times: cooking over campfires, playing music, and just visiting. The governor saw the myriad benefits of the great outdoors.
This, however, is not a story about parks but about the wildly popular Enchanted Rock State Natural Area and other natural areas, a lesser-known and sometimes misunderstood category within the state parks system. There are three categories under the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s umbrella: parks,
