Explore Big Spring State Park: History, Attractions, and Facilities
By: Christopher Long
Revised by: Laurie E. Jasinski
Published: 1976
Updated: September 9, 2025
Big Spring State Park is on Farm Road 700 on the southern edge of Big Spring in Howard County. The 382-acre park is located in a semiarid region that sits on the northern edge of the Edwards Plateau and at an ecological crossroads with the Llano Estacado stretching west and the western Rolling Plains to the north and east. The site, once a Comanche campground, was a city park until Big Spring turned it over to the State Parks Board in 1934. During 1934–35 Civilian Conservation Corps Company 1857 constructed a number of facilities, including a stone dance pavilion, caretaker’s residence, picnic tables, and also an impressive three-mile park road. The byway, which wound up the park’s Scenic Mountain and was lined by blocks quarried from native limestone, was dubbed the “Roman Road.” Big Spring State Park opened in 1936 and has served area residents and tourists ever since. Among the major attractions is a large prairie dog town. Facilities include a scenic drive, a lookout point at the edge of the mesa, tables for picnicking, and hiking and biking trails.
Bibliography:
Big Spring State Park, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/big-spring), accessed September 7, 2025. Cynthia Brandimarte with Angela Reed, Texas State Parks and the CCC: The Legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2013). Ray Miller, Texas Parks (Houston: Cordovan, 1984).
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The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Christopher Long Revised by Laurie E. Jasinski, “Big Spring State Park,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/big-spring-state-recreation-area.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
TID:
GKB06
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- 1976
- September 9, 2025
