Explore Bonham State Park: A Historical Gem in Texas
By: Brian Hart
Revised by: Laurie E. Jasinski
Published: 1976
Updated: September 10, 2025
Bonham State Park in Fannin County, about four miles southeast of Bonham on Farm Road 271, was established in 1933 on 261 acres of land donated by the city of Bonham to the State Parks Board. The National Park Service drew up the plans for the park, and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 894 carried out the construction from 1933 to 1936. Like most CCC-built parks, Bonham State Park includes a small lake surrounded by shelters, a bathhouse, and a swimming beach. Workers built an earthen dam to hold the sixty-five-acre lake, and they constructed picnic tables, a pavilion, and a storage building (which later became the boathouse). Fishing and low-speed boating are allowed on the lake, which also has a fishing pier. The park in located in the Blackland Prairie region of Northeast Texas and less heavily wooded than many other state parks in the area. Its flora includes oak, cedar, cottonwood, black willow, and green ash trees, and part of its area is grassy prairie. Park facilities include twenty-one campsites as well as a group camping area, picnic sites, a pavilion, barracks, and almost nine miles of trails for hiking and biking.
Bibliography:
Bonham State Park, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/bonham), accessed September 10, 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). Mildred J. Little, Camper's Guide to Texas Parks, Lakes, and Forests (Houston: Pacesetter, 1978; 2d ed., Houston: Lone Star, 1983). Ray Miller, Texas Parks (Houston: Cordovan, 1984). James Wright Steely, The Civilian Conservation Corps in Texas State Parks (Austin: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, 1986).
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The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Brian Hart Revised by Laurie E. Jasinski, “Bonham State Park,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/bonham-state-recreation-area.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
TID:
GKB09
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- 1976
- September 10, 2025
