The story of begins with a shooting.
In 2008, Will Copeland shot and killed Kevin Parsons at the Mule Lip Bar in Mingus, Texas. Copeland to Parsons鈥� father as part of a wrongful death lawsuit.
The Nature Conservancy and other nearby tracts on behalf of the parks department, and Palo Pinto Mountains State Park was born. Halfway between Abilene and Fort Worth, Palo Pinto will be the first new state park in North Texas to open .
That first purchase happened a decade ago, and the park is finally taking shape. Construction began earlier this year. It鈥檚 expected to open in 2023, in time for the state parks centennial.
鈥楪etting To Share This Part Of Texas & How Beautiful It Is鈥�
鈥淚 grew up just down the road in Mineral Wells, so what excites me is getting to share this area with other people 鈥� getting to share this part of Texas and how beautiful it is,鈥� Park Superintendent James Adams said.
Adams has worked for the parks department for years, and he鈥檚 excited to be part of a legacy at Palo Pinto.
The park is hilly and green. It feels days away from mostly flat Dallas-Fort Worth, even though it only takes an hour or two to get there.
Palo Pinto is just under 5,000 acres. Visitors will be able to hike, bike and ride horses over the hills. There will be fishing and canoeing on Tucker Lake and campsites where you can stargaze.
Every part of the park was designed to make as little impact on the land as possible, Adams said. In the area with the most construction, two guys spent months walking around with a stick and a tape measure, mapping out the bigger, older-growth trees. That way, they know which ones to build around.
鈥淚f you cut down this six, seven foot cedar or juniper tree here, you'll have it again in a year or two. If you cut down a live oak that鈥檚 30 feet tall, you're not going to have it again for 100 years,鈥� Adams explained.
The park鈥檚 trees are also the preferred habitat of , an endangered bird that only nests in central Texas. Their nesting season stretches from March 1 to Sept. 1, so construction on the park is paused until it ends, so crews don鈥檛 disturb them.
Besides the golden-cheeked warbler, there鈥檚 plenty of other wildlife in the park. There are coyotes, blue herons and a bird called the black-capped vireo.
There are also a few remnants of human history in the park. There鈥檚 an old dam in Palo Pinto Creek with a pump house nearby, that was used to send water up to the railroad and fill steam engines. There鈥檚 also an old campsite that Indigenous groups used to use.
Excavators found a fire ring marking the campsite, 6 feet below the surface. They found other fire remnants at different levels in the soil. Years and years of fires, all within a few feet of each other.
Adams said that was one of his favorite finds.
鈥淧eople had been using that campsite for generations, and they weren't using Google Maps to get back to that spot,鈥� he said.
鈥榊鈥檃ll Come Back鈥�
There鈥檚 still a lot to be done before the park opens to the public.
The roads need to be paved. Exposed natural gas lines, left over from the land鈥檚 ranching days, need to be buried 鈥� and, of course, buildings need to be built.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation has raised $6 million of the $9 million needed to construct a visitors center and other facilities. to cover what鈥檚 left.
Once the park opens, one of the first things visitors will see is a sweeping view of the hills from a road built along a ridge. That was on purpose 鈥� to awe people on their way in and out.
Adams calls it the 鈥測鈥檃ll come back鈥� view.
鈥淚nstead of a sign that says 鈥榶鈥檃ll come back,鈥� we鈥檒l just give them this,鈥� he said.
Got a tip? Email Miranda Suarez at msuarez@kera.org. You can follow Miranda on Twitter .
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