Planning your summer vacation? Check out one of our state parks! George Bristol will discuss his book, Texas State Parks: The First 100 Years, 1923–2023, which examines the history of one of Texas’s most treasured assets: our state parks. From the legislative establishment of the original Texas State Parks Board to the present, the development of our state and national parks over the last one hundred years has depended upon an evolving concept of public lands for public use and enjoyment.

George Bristol’s love of national and state parks began more than forty years ago. In 1984, Governor Mark White named him chairman of the Texas Conservation Foundation, a role he served in until 1988. Ten years later, in 1994, President Bill Clinton and Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt appointed him to the National Park Foundation Board of Directors to a six-year term. Once his term ended, Bristol created the Texas Coalition for Conservation to advocate better funding for Texas state parks. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Cornelius Pugsley Award from the American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration and the National Park Foundation in 2009. Bristol is also the author of several books, such as Glacier National Park: A Culmination of Giants, Visual Voices, and his autobiography, On Politics and Parks.

Masks are welcomed but not required.

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