Johnson was one of the major landowners in the area and served as sheriff for a decade. Lou Johnson and her children for $18,651 through the J. The Johnson Dam, just west of Oakes Street, was completed in 1931. Bailey donated 6.9 acres of land to the city for a new park along Abe Street which became Sunken Garden Park the gift tract had been the site of an old quarry and posed some serious drainage challenges. It was apparently all right, since it held in the 1936 flood.” We mixed the concrete and pushed big boulders into the slush. “I designed the dam, and my brothers, Bryan and Blaine, built it along with some hired hands,” K.C. Kirby, whose father owned land around what is now 29th Street, decided to build a dam across the river in that area for irrigation purposes. … He didn’t plan it for his own generation, but for the generations to come.”ĭevelopment along the river proceeded through the years in fits and starts.Ī trio of brothers began working on the waterway north of downtown around 1923.Īccording to Standard-Times archives, ranchman K.C. Hazel Atwood said, “He just couldn’t understand why we didn’t have more trees here, especially pecan trees. In an interview with his widow following his death in 1947, Mrs.

They told folks they needed to obtain right-of-way, and San Angeloans passed the hat to collect $40,000 for the venture.Īccording to historical records, a contract was signed with Northern Construction Co., but the project was transferred to the Santa Fe Railroad before any track was laid. Just about everyone who grew up in San Angelo has a fond memory or two from Santa Fe Park, but many may be unaware that the park resulted from a railroad deal gone awry.Īccording to a history of local parks published by the Standard-Times in 1965, a few local visionaries are to thank for the communal spaces, and the story begins in 1909 when three men from Iowa came to town looking to build a rail line between San Angelo and Sterling City. San Angelo has always been blessed to have a river running through it, but in the early years of town - before any dams or other construction impounded the flow - the river shrank to a trickle in some years, and its banks were a far cry from the pleasure parks we enjoy today.

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