Experts share history of Spring Lake Park area
TEXARKANA, Texas — From a woodland wilderness to a modern-day social hub, the area now known as Spring Lake Park has been a vital part of the region for generations. Two local historians, Dr. Tom Wagy and Brande Hewett, shared the history of the area Saturday during an event at the Ace of Clubs House.
Hernando de Soto
“Did Hernando De Soto actually come to the spring in Spring Lake Park? Did he actually drink from it? When in doubt, print the legend,” said Wagy, a history professor at Texas A&M UniversityTexarkana.
After researching the question, however, Wagy has come to the conclusion that De Soto did not drink from the spring.
“He was dead … before they got there,” Wagy said. But he’s fairly certain the expedition did make it there.
“You can’t read about this expedition without being astounded by its magnificence,” Wagy said.
The area was different back then, just acres of piney woods surrounding a spring.
William W. Wooten
William W. Wooten, who would become a central figure in the found
ing of Texarkana, filed a land grant for 640 acres in the Republic of Texas at the Land Office in Boston, Red River County, Texas. Two witnesses, William H. Moores and Thomas Crutcher, swore that William W. Wooten, a single man, had lived in the county since Sept. 26, 1837. Wooten eventually purchased another tract of land from Willis Oldham.
In 1860, Wooten, then 50 years old, lived on a farm near the spring with his wife, Martha, four children and two tenants.
Anthony Ghio
“Anthony Ghio is our next figure,” Wagy said. “Born in Italy, he arrived in New York City at age 17 in 1849. He sought success in the world of business, beginning a liquor business in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1853. He then moved to Cairo, Illinois, where he dabbled in the confectionery business. Eventually he found his calling as a traveling salesman, finding himself in Jefferson, Texas, during 1863, yes, during the Civil War. There, he found a populace blocking the railroad to protect river shipping. Ghio went out into the forest, finding rich woods and a spring, which would become Texarkana. He bought 76 acres of land from Leo T. Wooten, originally part of the William W. Wooten estate, which contained the spring. Of which, Ghio had set up a system which channeled the water from the spring and created the lake that now exists.”
“His first enterprise there was the liquor business. Eventually, he got elected mayor more than once, and then sold 76 acres of land to the Texarkana Fair Association, which is believe to contain the land holding the legendary spring,” Wagy said.
The Texarkana Fair Association built a race track, grand stand and exhibition building there. Eventually, the association sold the land to the Texarkana Driving Park Association.
The city bought the park in 1894.
Spring Lake Park Streetcar
At that point, Brande Hewett, a senior and history major at A&MTexarkana, took over the presentation, starting on the Spring Lake Park Streetcar.
“The street car system, which originated in Texarkana’s downtown, featured cars originally drawn by mules and horses along tracks, more colorfully festooned in the summer,” Hewett said. “These cars ran along a route from downtown Texarkana to Spring Lake Park. The road and track that went to Spring Lake Park was roughly where Texas Boulevard is now. These cars did go electric later, but the business was wiped out by the Great Depression and the coming of the automobile.”
Phantom Killer
The Phantom Killer is another figure from Texarkana’s colorful history that also has ties to Spring Lake Park.
The Phantom was active in 1946.
“His most famous murder was that of Betty Jo Booker, 15, and Paul Martin, 16,” Hewett said. “She had played the saxophone in a band performance that night and the two of them drove to the area. Spring Lake Park was known for concealment and a lover’s lane at that time. But evidence suggests that’s not what Booker and Martin were there for. They were just talking and hanging out. Both victims had been shot multiple times and Booker had been raped. This occurred in the early hours of April 14, 1946, Hewett said. “Booker’s body was found over a mile northwest of the lake, an area now separated from the park by Interstate 30. Martin’s remains were located less than a mile north of the lake. The murders have never been solved.”
The 1976 slasher film “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” is loosely based on the Phantom Killer.
The film is shown in Spring Lake Park each fall.
“People don’t realize just how much the park and area around it has transformed over the years,” Hewett said. “It has gone from a vast, untamed wilderness to a place of various locations and a nexus of social interaction. From an air strip where pioneering acts of aviation were performed and famous aviators landed, to the Four States Fair to Scout-O-Rama and more, Spring Lake Park has been a center of Texarkana history, culture and activity since its beginning.”