This park is six miles north of Lake Frierson. It too is basically a BCP park with some trails. They make a big deal of their CCC-constructed buildings — so much that they put one on their sign.
I’ve decided this shirt makes me look like Forrest Gump.
I visited the park in November, 2022, and walked all the trails, so I didn’t feel like I needed to do a lot today to earn my passport stamp. I walked the trail around Lake Ponder — named after some guy, in case you were pondering. The CCC Pavilion sits back of the swim beach.
Built in 1937. The second level is a dance floor. For some reason this struck me as cool, so I did a little dance. No I didn’t. but I did take this photo. I tried to picture what it looked like on an evening in 1937 with couples dancing to big band music.
On Christmas day in 1825, Ben Crowley and his family settled on the land above the spring that now feeds Lake Ponder. He was a veteran of the War of 1812, and the government gave him a 160-acre land grant instead of pay. His five sons and a bunch of other family members built nearby and started a community. There’s a monument to him behind the pavilion, near an old cemetery, and a historical marker. The plate at the base of the marker (right in the photo below) reads: “Benjamin Crowley 1758-1842 The man for whom Crowley’s Ridge is named.”
There was a huge inflatable maze/obstacle course thing by the swim beach that would have been a riot when I was a teen, although it sorta ruined the rustic ambiance.
Walcott Lake is a very man-made-looking man-made lake.
When I was here in 2022, I walked the trail along the edge and took a photo looking down from the ridge to the flat delta farmland below. It shows how little a rise it takes to be a notable feature in this part of the country.
Also in 2022, I walked the Dancing Rabbit Trail, mostly because I thought the name was funny. The bridge is on that trail.
