Written Historical and Descriptive Data Hals Tx-9
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PARK ROAD 4 HALS TX-9 Connects U.S. Highway 281 to State Highway 29, running through HALS TX-9 Longhorn Cavern State Park and Inks Lake State Park Burnet Burnet County Texas WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA HISTORIC AMERICAN LANDSCAPES SURVEY National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior 1849 C Street NW Washington, DC 20240-0001 HISTORIC AMERICAN LANDSCAPES SURVEY PARK ROAD 4 HALS NO. TX-9 Location: Burnet Vicinity, Burnet County, Texas, connecting U.S. Highway 281 to State Highway 29, running through Longhorn Cavern State Park and Inks Lake State Park. Park Road 4 Historic District Lat: 30.756947, Long: -98.373055 (intersection of Park Road 4 and S.H. 29, Google Earth, Simple Cylindrical Projection, WGS84) UTM References: 1 to 7 are the northwestern segment of Park Road 4 from S.H. 29 through Inks Lake State Park and along Hoover’s Valley Road, to the northern boundary of Longhorn Cavern State Park. References 8 to 14 represent a polygon encompassing the boundaries of the park, and references 15 and 16 represent the endpoints of the segment of road between the headquarters of Longhorn State Park and the entrance of the parkway on U.S. 281. Zone Easting Northing 1. 14 56006.28 3402832.12 2. 14 559629.15 3402276.15 3. 14 561949.97 3401915.38 4. 14 560352.51 3400516.03 5. 14 560471.48 3399724.22 6. 14 559192.08 3399774.33 7. 14 559289.01 3396604.93 8. 14 559769.32 3396201.27 Zone Easting Northing 9. 14 561583.61 3396225.23 10. 14 563330.17 3394433.60 11. 14 562831.94 3393525.76 12. 14 561317.34 3394366.03 13. 14 561512.62 3396062.38 14. 14 559291.56 3396028.98 15. 14 562841.99 3394708.47 16. 14 571336.11 3395642.90 Significance: Park Road 4 is a 15.5-mile, two-lane parkway that provides access to Longhorn Cavern State Park and the eastern shore of Inks Lake State Park (Figure 1). The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (Parks and Wildlife) has owned the right- of-way of Park Road 4 since the mid-1930s when the first several miles were constructed by the CCC to provide visitor access to the newly renovated Longhorn Cavern. The parkway was extended westward in the late 1930s PARK ROAD 4 HALS NO. TX-9 PAGE 2 connect with then-Hoover’s Valley Road, and finally completed by the Texas Highway Department concurrently with the construction of Inks Lake in the early 1940s. The Park Road 4 Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2011 as significant at the state level as an excellent of Depression-era park and parkway design and construction, with elements skillfully executed in the rustic aesthetic; for its outstanding rustic architecture; and as a stellar example of Texas’ participation in the national movement to create scenic parkways for the traveling public. Description: Park Road 4 is a 15.5-mile, two-lane, scenic parkway that extends west from U.S. Highway 281, at a point four miles south of Burnet, Texas, located northwest of the state capital city of Austin. The parkway travels through Longhorn Cavern State Park and along the eastern shore of Inks Lake State Park before it terminates at State Highway 29 to the west of Burnet (Figure 2). Lying entirely within Burnet County, Park Road 4 passes through a variety of dramatic landscapes from east to west, ranging from the gently rolling limestone karst region containing the spectacular Longhorn Cavern, over and down the dramatic slopes of Backbone Ridge, and through the other-worldly pink gneiss formations above Inks Lake. Parks and Wildlife has owned Park Road 4 since the mid-1930s, when the first several miles were constructed by members of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to provide visitor access to the newly renovated Longhorn Cavern State Park. The parkway was extended west of the park head-quarters in the early 1940s and finally completed concurrently with the construction of Inks Lake State Park in 1941. Today, Park Road 4 serves as the major access road for Longhorn Cavern State Park and for the eastern reaches of Inks Lake State Park. The parkway right-of-way varies in width from 100 to 500’ and contains the whole of Longhorn Cavern State Park. Park Road 4 maintains its original horizontal and vertical roadway alignments; dramatic sandstone eastern entrance portals; and sandstone, limestone, granite, and gneiss masonry bridges, retaining walls, and guardwalls, most of which were constructed between 1934 and 1942 by the CCC and the State Highway Department (now Texas Department of Transportation or TxDOT) under the direction of the National Park Service (NPS). Of particular note are the 62 stone and concrete culverts, also constructed by the CCC and the SHD, that pass under the park road. In addition, historic buildings, structures, objects built by the CCC, and sites associated with the CCC, lie within the developed area of Longhorn Cavern State Park. The district also contains historic landscape features such as vistas into the surrounding landscape, designed by NPS staff; established scenic overlooks; native trees preserved by the CCC; and other vegetation planted by CCC crews. Most of the historic landscape features of Park Road 4 are in good condition, with only one instance of the complete removal and replacement of a 1934 CCC bridge (not in-kind), along with minor masonry damage to others. Some viewsheds have become blocked by vegetation, but this is easily reversible. One PARK ROAD 4 HALS NO. TX-9 PAGE 3 overlook has been abandoned, but is still evident in the landscape and only slightly eroded and overgrown. The greatest threats to the historical integrity of Park Road 4’s character-defining features are a direct result of regional changes in land uses from agricultural to residential and recreational during the last thirty or so years. These land use changes have altered the historic use of the road, increased traffic, had a negative impact on some scenic viewsheds, and inspired new connections to other roads or additional driveway cuts to access commercial, recreational, and residential properties. The current and future impact of these threats has been recently been addressed through the listing of Park Road 4 on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), as discussed below. History: Park Road 4, Longhorn Cavern State Park, and Inks Lake State Park were designed and constructed by the CCC from 1934-1940, and completed by the State Highway Department in 1941. The CCC was one of many of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) programs and was developed to employ large numbers of men in the nation’s forests and parks. Cooperating with state and local agencies throughout the country, the federal government embarked on this unprecedented environmental improve- ment program to reclaim forests, prevent soil erosion, build reservoirs, and create parks for public recreation. The NPS managed the CCC work in Texas, which was led by NPS architect, Herbert Maeir. Between 1924 and 1929, Maeir, who had been trained at the University of California, Berkeley, designed museums at Bear Mountain, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone national parks. Contemporaneous and modern critics have considered his work the culmination of the NPS’ rustic style, designed to complement the landscape through the use of native materials and handcrafted construction. As the ECW director of District III, which included Texas, from 1933 to 1937, and then director of the NPS Southwest Region after 1937, Maier promulgated his ideas regarding park design by training inspectors, landscape architect, and architects employed in Denver or at the Central Design Office in Austin. Maier believed that park developments should harmonize with, rather than dominate, the natural landscape. Parks and parkways were designed to rest lightly on the land, working with existing natural topography and vegetative patterns, and highlighting scenic vistas. The architects, landscape architects, and engineers who designed the park buildings, structures, trails, and parkways under Maeir’s tutelage utilized local materials and hand-crafted details to reflect the unique geology, history, and culture of the surrounding landscapes. Support structures, such as bridges, culverts, dams, fences, and retaining walls, were typically constructed with hand-hewn and locally-quarried stone or other native materials in keeping with the rustic aesthetic. This visual quality was enhanced PARK ROAD 4 HALS NO. TX-9 PAGE 4 by the preservation or planting of native trees and shrubs in areas of intense use, such as park headquarters, parkway entrances, and scenic overlooks. In 1934, Maeir developed a photographic portfolio of park structures, called “The Library of Original Sources,” which showcased his own work, as well as state parks developed under his supervision. The portfolio was used as a style guide for park and parkway designers and for construction managers in the field. A similar, but nationwide catalog of park facilities was compiled for the NPS by architect, Albert H. Good, during the following year. Maier served on the selection committee for Good’s expanded, three-volume Park and Recreation Structures, published in 1938.1 Many of the features of Park Road 4 and Longhorn Caverns State Park were used to illustrate Good’s book. The concept of scenic parkways was relatively new when Park Road 4 was initiated; in fact, only nine states had adopted laws enabling parkways by 1937. In the 1937 Department of the Interior yearbook entitled Parks and Recreation Progress, Conrad L. Wirth, assistant director of the National Park Service, lauded the federal government’s assistance in widespread park development since President Roosevelt took office in 1933.