My memories of Boyle Park go back almost 65 years as my parents use to take us out there for picnics. It was way out in the country then rather than in the middle of the city. Through all 8 years of grade school at Holy Souls we had our school picnic out here. We would load up on buses early in the morning and not return to school until that afternoon. It was great fun and I, loved the park. At that time little did I know that I would spend 41 years maintaining Boyle Park as I worked for the Little Rock Parks Department.
Boyle Park contains a total of eight known examples of Civilian Conservation Corps construction, all of which were built in the mid 1930’s. These include: Pavilion 1&2, the Spring House, the original care takers cabin still used by the Department as a live in residence for one of the maintenance personnel, the remains of a water tower a low water bridge and two stacked stone culverts. I have always wanted to place some caches in the park to showcase some of the great workmanship of the CCC a jobs program began by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 to provide outdoor employment to Depression-idled young men and to accomplish badly needed work in the protection, improvement and development of the country’s natural resources.
The lost picnic area.
You are looking for plastic container about the size of a milk jug hidden in one of only a few remaining trash enclosures left from the CCC construction. There used to be a picnic area here that was accessible from the main road coming into the park. As Little Rock grew and the drainage coming into the park from development in west Little Rock increased the creek grew wider and access to the area was lost. There are still about 10 fireplaces, as well as about 6 of these underground receptacles scattered around this area. They were originally covered by a hinged, wooden cover to keep out the wild animals. This particular one still has some remnants of the cover in the bottom of it. I have made this one a 4 as the area is very heavily overgrown and contains a lot of damaged trees as a result of the December 2012 ice storm.