Texas Talks - Texas State Parks Historical Insights: The First Female Park Managers and Rock Wall Ranching in Reeves County

Texas State Parks Historical Insights: The First Female Park Managers and Rock Wall Ranching in Reeves County

At the onset of World War II, Texas State Parks needed park managers and hired several women to spearhead operations at parks across the state. Women took the lead at Caddo Lake, Davis Mountains, and Stephen F. Austin State Parks, and at the San Jose Mission, (which was a Texas State Park until it became a part of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park in 1978). Ethel Harris, Esther Webb, Carrie Mae Ferrell, and Douthitt Alcus were the first female managers in our park system that paved the way for future generations of female park superintendents. Learn more about these hard-working women and about the history of a new 643-acre addition to Balmorhea State Park in Texas Talks program: Texas State Parks Historical Insights: The First Female Park Managers and Rock Wall Ranching in Reeves County presented by Texas Parks and Wildlife Historian Toni Nagel Mason.

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Toni Nagel Mason has been the Historian for the Cultural Resources/Preservation Services program at Texas State Parks since 2022. A native Texan, Toni has worked with historical projects, the preservation of historic buildings, in museums, and with tourism in Texas, Washington State and Southern California. She has a passion for research on people, photographs, historic structures, artifacts and many facets of our U.S. History. Ms. Mason has a BA in Archaeology and Museum Studies from Baylor University and a MA in History with Historic Preservation emphasis from the University of San Diego, with her Master Thesis on “The History of the Mission San Diego de Alcala.” She has researched various aspects of our Texas History for exhibits, publications and programming as Archivist at the John E. Conner Museum in Kingsville, Director of the King Ranch’s Visitor Program Services, and Manager at Winedale – a National Register/University of Texas historic building complex. She was the Photo Archivist/Curator of History at the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Washington for many years, and has come full circle in her career as her first job was renting paddleboats and canoes at Ft. Parker State Park.