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.
This dam was constructed to create the lake that you see adjacent to it. Notice the rock placement on the dam as well as all of the rocks placed around the area of the dam to help prevent erosion. Prior to the flood of 1978 and the channelization of and deepening of Rock Creek the stream feeding this lake use to flow all the time like the main creek. Now the only time it gets water is when we have a heavy rain and the main creek fills up, as the channel of the main creek is probably about 10 feet below the original flow level. You are looking for a small container in the fork of a tree with only a log so be sure and bring a pen or pencil.