Cameron Park is a

urban park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Pe ...

located in

Waco, Texas Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and Interstate 35, I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin, Texas, Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the List ...

. The park was dedicated on May 27, 1910, and named in memory of Waco philanthropist and lumber baron William Cameron. The park also contains Waco's

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...

, the Cameron Park Zoo.

History

In the early 20th century, as Waco continued to develop as the urban heart of

McLennan County McLennan County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in Central Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 260,579 . Its county seat and largest city is Waco. The U.S. census 2021 county population estimate is 263,115. The county is ...

and the

progressive movement Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, tech ...

was rising throughout America, Waco citizens began to clamor for more parks and green spaces to be preserved for public use. Many wanted to make Proctor Springs, a popular gathering site near the

Brazos River The Brazos River ( , ), called the ''Río de los Brazos de Dios'' (translated as "The River of the Arms of God") by early Spanish explorers, is the 11th-longest river in the United States at from its headwater source at the head of Blackwater ...

that had become subject to commercialization around the turn of the century, the site of a new city park. Before the city could act, the land was purchased for $25,000 by a businessman, W.C. Lawson. Despite this apparent setback, the hopes of Wacoans to preserve Proctor Springs were not lost; on May 24, 1910, Flora B. Cameron, wife of the late William Cameron, announced that she was donating all of the land to the city of

Waco Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...

. Mrs. Cameron revealed that she had purchased the land with Lawson as a liaison with the intention of donating it as a park in memory of her late husband. The gift came attached with a $5,000 gift for park development, as well as stipulations to preserve the name and funding for the park, and to prohibit commercial enterprise within its borders. The park was officially dedicated on May 27, 1910, with a large ceremony attended by nearly 15,000 people.

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the ...

President Samuel Palmer Brooks served as the master of ceremonies for the dedication. After the establishment of the park, the Cameron family continued to support its expansion and development, with gifts of land made in 1917 and 1920 that extended the park from the original site at Proctor Springs along the Brazos and

Bosque A bosque ( ) is a type of gallery forest habitat found along the riparian flood plains of stream and river banks in the southwestern United States. It derives its name from the Spanish word for ' woodlands'. Setting In the predominantly ...

all the way to Lover's Leap, a popular cliff formation. These gifts more than doubled the size of the park, and left it at the size it is today. During the Great Depression, federal workers affiliated with

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Con ...

programs constructed trails, water drains, and retaining walls to improve the park. From this point, up until the mid-1960s, the park enjoyed significant popularity among Wacoans. In that decade, however, a controversy developed over plans to construct a bridge across the Brazos at Herring Avenue that would link East Waco more directly with the park. A combination of factors, including animosity towards the new park entrance, greater vehicular traffic, and racial factors stemming from the demographic makeup of East Waco, led popularity of the park to steeply drop. As attendance dropped, the facilities in the park began to deteriorate, and criminal activity in the park began to increase. Until the late 1980s, Cameron Park continued to fall into disrepair and disuse. At the end of that decade, however, a revitalization process began to restore the park's former beauty and popularity. Congressman W. R. Pogue made a donation of $100,000 towards a wildflower preserve in honor of his late mother, known as Miss Nellie's Pretty Place. A greater police presence, including

mounted police Mounted police are police who patrol on horseback or camelback. Their day-to-day function is typically picturesque or ceremonial, but they are also employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and increasingly in ...

, was established to patrol the park. The opening of the Cameron Park Zoo in 1993 and the expansion of trails throughout that decade helped bring Cameron Park back to popularity among the entire population of the Waco area.

Present day

Today, Cameron Park is one of the largest city parks in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, with over of trails, a

disc golf Disc golf, also known as frisbee golf, is a flying disc sport in which players throw a disc at a target; it is played using rules similar to golf. Most disc golf discs are made out of polypropylene plastic, otherwise known as polypropene, which ...

course, cross country running course, recreational courts and

playground A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for other age groups, or people ...

s, picnic areas, and the Cameron Park Zoo. It celebrated its centenary in 2010, and funds raised for that celebration will be funding a new limestone pavilion in the park, set to be completed in the summer of 2015.

History

Present day

References

Further reading