HomeMy WebLinkAboutEDWARDS - BRISON PARK SUPPORT LETTERSept 23, 2024
Texas Recreation and Parks Society
Dear TRAPS members:
I am 76 years old and have lived most of my life in the historic area of College Station, Texas.
There was always the park. It didn’t have a name back then, but it was known to the children of the neighborhood as Billy Goat Bridge Park. We would meet there to play among the trees
and bushes, plan treehouses that never got built, and eat mustang grapes from the vines hanging off the trees,
There was a special draw for the boys. Picture this. The paths around and through the park were dirt. A small creek bisected the length of the area from northwest to southeast. A wooden
footbridge crossed the creek just above the level of the water. To get to the bridge, one had to go carefully down a steep rutted bank, and then ascend the other side which was just
as steep and rutted. This was the perfect challenge for boys on bicycles trying to prove their manhood. The faster one took the bridge, the greater the prowess. Needless to say, there
were many spectacular crashes!
I was gone from College Station for several years but returned in 1991 and settled into the house my grandparents built there in 1940 – two blocks from the park. I found things had
changed. The park had been named after Fred Brison, a famous Aggie horticulturist whose home sat at the south end of the park. Brison Park was now maintained by the Parks and Recreation
Department, the dirt paths were concrete sidewalks, and Billy Goat Bridge had handrails and was well above the water level. The trolls we imagined living under the bridge were long
gone.
On any given day Brison Park is full of college students, neighbors walking their dogs, joggers. Friends stop to visit, children play along the creek. Wedding proposals and birthday
parties take place under the majestic Brison Oak. Long time residents hold spring and fall gatherings to promote neighborly community. Birders come from great distances to find many
different species during migration seasons.
Brison Park is truly a community gathering place for fun and play, for naturalists, for quiet walks and meditation, and for special events. It unquestionably deserves to be designated
a Lone Star Legacy Park. I hope you will do so as soon as possible.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Katherine A. Edwards
313 Pershing
College Station, Texas 77840