History
The federal government opened the Barker Reservoir in the 1940s, mainly for Buffalo Bayou flood control. The present area occupies about half of the original area.
The park stayed under the name Cullen-Barker Park until January 1997, when Commissioner Steve Radack proposed the name George Bush Park in honor of the 41st president of the United States George H. W. Bush. In May, the former president attended the opening ceremony, and the park received its new name.
Due to the ongoing Texas drought, on 9/13/2011, Houston Firefighters were dispatched to the park responding to a wildfire. The fire quickly grew and the firefighters were sent to the north levee near I-10 to wait for the fire to come to them and stop it there. At one point the fire was one mile wide, consuming 1,500-acres of the park, with the cause under investigation.
Read more about this topic: George Bush Park
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“Both place and time were changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)