Emma Long Metropolitan Park is a large municipal park in northwest
Austin, Texas
Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
(
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
). The park is on the shores of
Lake Austin
Lake Austin, formerly Lake McDonald, is a water reservoir on the Colorado River in Austin, Texas. The reservoir was formed in 1939 by the construction of Tom Miller Dam by the Lower Colorado River Authority. Lake Austin is one of the seven Texa ...
and was originally called City Park. The park features open space, camp sites, boat ramps, picnic table sites and a designating swimming area.
In 1939,
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was ...
Company 1805 that had just finished
Bastrop State Park
Bastrop State Park is a state park in Bastrop County, Texas, Bastrop County, Texas, United States. The park was established in 1933 and consists of stands of Pinus taeda, loblolly pines mixed with Quercus stellata, post oak and junipers.
Histo ...
moved to the site to begin developing the tract of land into a municipal park. The company's primary work included seeding and sodding grass,
planting trees
Tree planting is the process of transplanting tree seedlings, generally for forestry, land reclamation, or landscaping purposes. It differs from the transplantation of larger trees in arboriculture and from the lower-cost but slower and less re ...
, and protecting the bank of the lake from erosion. They built docks, piers and a boathouse. They also built a wooden bath house and concession stand. These wooden structures burned and were replaced with stone structures that are still in use.
In 1984, the Austin City Council renamed the park after
Emma Long, a former Austin City Council Member. Long was the first woman to serve on the council of a large city in Texas. She also served as the first woman Mayor Pro Tem from 1967-1969.
References
External links
Official website
Parks in Austin, Texas
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