Did you know?

Lake Mineral Wells State Park

in Mineral Wells, is the only state park in Parker County! Click here to visit the Texas Parks & Wildlife page for Lake Mineral Wells State Park.

 

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Plans for a Nature Center

What I envision for the Poor Farm is a 190-acre nature preserve. This would be a place where a natural habitat could be preserved for wildlife, as well as a place where Parker County citizens could get out of town and go hiking, to enjoy the nature and wildlife.

What I have in mind is a nature center, similar to a state park. Because 190 acres is relatively small (Lake Mineral Wells State Park is 3,282 acres), we are limited to what we can do with the land. While a state park usually has camping areas, I think we should concentrate more on day-use facilities; primarily hiking trails, some picnic tables, and maybe a pavilion on Kaliche Mountain.

There are four nature centers in North-central Texas that I know of. In Tarrant County there is the Fort Worth Nature Center (more than 3,600 acres) and the River Legacy Parks (1,300 acres), in Dallas County there is the Dallas Nature Center (633 acres), and in Collin County there is the Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary (289 acres). As you can see, all of these are larger in area than the proposed Parker County nature center, but I think we can get some good ideas from these different places. Another good example of a nature center is the 100-acre Cibolo Nature Center, located near Boerne in Kendall County.

One thing that I think would be neat for the nature preserve is a visitors center/museum. This could act as headquarters for the nature center, as well as a small museum and souvenir shop. It could even be expanded to include historical artifacts from the poor farm. Although this would be a great idea, I don't see it coming about in the near future. I think we should work on planning for trails, etc. before we start thinking about a visitors center.

Please note that these are just my ideas. As a group, I'm sure there's many others who have ideas, and the final master plan for the poor farm will be the result of all our concerted effort. That's why we have the Advisory Group, so that everyone can be a part of this planning, and share their ideas. If you're interested, let us know!

–Benjamin Bruce
Webmaster, PoorFarm.net

 

 

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