Many years ago I traveled to Mother Neff State Park to watch my kids in a cross country event.  I was curious about the park and its names so I did a little research.  Come to find out Mother Neff is the Mother of all State Parks in Texas.  In 1916 this mom of Governor Neff donated some acres for gatherings and the rest is history!  When I saw this book at the Wimberley Book Fest, I was reminded of her and since this author has nicely packaged the stories behind all the state of Texas parks into one nice book – I bought it.  The author also offered a free book with purchase – see below.

I spent a day reading this book with my ipad next to me seeing where the parks are located.  My copy of this book now has an explosion of sticky notes attached to it.  They are marking all the cool state parks I NEED to visit in Texas.  Each park has the history of that park as well as interesting details followed by phone numbers and websites for more information.

This author has also created a wonderful collection of Non-Fiction books about Texas.  Find out more about him HERE. 

SUMMARY

Since 1923, from when the Texas state park system began, no one set of records was pooled together to show all the parks namesakes from biographical data; that is, until 2009 [86 years later] with Allan C. Kimballs WHO IS MOTHER NEFF and why is she a state park?

Texas The Capital of Capitals By Allan C. Kimball

I received this book as a freebie for purchasing the above book by this author.  What a treat!  While I found several places I have visited in Texas I also made a list of so many more places that I now want to visit.  The concise information and website addresses make this a wonderful resource.  I think Caldwell will be first on my list – read the book to find out why.  This is a great little book to gift to any native or transplant to Texas.