Fort Parker State Park

Time flies when you are buying land and eating turkey!  We went on this trip November 2-3 and I have been a lazy blogger.  I should have gotten it to you sooner because this park was great.  We went east this time to Mexia to Fort Parker State Park.  This park has a large lake, a cemetery, and an old wooden fort with a great story.  We arrived Saturday around lunchtime and choose a spot in the primitive area.  It really was not all that primitive as there were pit toilets, a water spigot in the loop and we could park right in front of our site.  It had rained a lot that week so the sites right next to lake were closed unless you like pitching a tent in water.  The sites were beautiful with tall pecan, oak, and cedar (not ash juniper) trees all around.  After setting up and letting the kids play awhile, we went on a hike to the cemetery.  On the way we saw a red tailed hawk perched on a tree very close to the trail, a ladder back woodpecker, and a red bellied woodpecker.  There was a town called Springfield on this land in the 1840's-1860's.  After the Civil War and the railroad came through, the town became deserted and the only thing left are the natural springs and the graves. We wandered around completing a scavenger hunt and learning a lot about the people that lived there. 
That evening, Shawn and the kids went fishing while I got the fire started and relaxed.  Patrick caught 2 white bass big enough to keep.  After dark, the park host lead Natalie and I on a night hike to look for owls and avoid hogs.  We didn't see any, but heard the call of a eastern screech owl, a great horned owl and a bared owl from our campsite. 
The next morning they returned to the lake and got one more fish.  We packed up and left the park to visit the fort just down the road.  The fort is a replica built in 1936 when the state park was built.  Old Fort Parker was the pioneer home of Cynthia Parker, who at age 9, was abducted by attacking Comanches and raised by the tribe.  She eventually married the chief and had 3 children.  It was discovered by Captain Sull of the Texas Rangers that she was not Comanche and was returned to her family in East Texas.  But she never could adapt to anglo ways and died just after the death of her daughter at age 45.  This fort was fun to walk through and look at all of the artifacts. 
This was a great park for Texas history and nature.  I highly recommend it for fishing and enjoying the trees.  The Confederate Reunion Grounds are also nearby, but we did not make it over there.