William Wooten & Anthony Ghio

William Wooten and Anthony Ghio. City of Texarkana, Texas. , In 1841, the Republic of Texas granted Tennessee native William W. Wooten title to 640 acres of land he had settled in 1837. Wooten bought an additional 640 acre tract from Will Oldham in December 1848, a few months after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican War. A prized natural spring on this land provided fresh water throughout the year. In 1860, Wooten lived on a farm near the spring with his wife Martha, four children, and two tenants. , In 1886, Anthony L. Ghio purchased the land that Wooten had pioneered. Ghio realized the value of the spring and constructed a concrete basin to channel the flow of water. One person remembered, “Many people drank it's (sic) refreshing waters and many would use no other in their homes.” , Locals claimed the water's quality was equal to the famous Waukesha [Wisconsin] waters. Ghio built a dam that created a large lake from the spring's flow. He stocked the lake with fish from the government hatcheries in Washington, D.C. A photograph taken in 1889 shows a lake much larger than the one existing in later years. It was surrounded by a pine forest that pressed against the shore. To improve access to the park, Ghio and his friend L. B. Fish hired workers to cut a path through the pine forest. This path was later known as Ghio-Fish Boulevard which connected the city to the park.