David Edward Colp

In 1923, Governor Neff appointed David Colp as the first chairman of the newly minted but unfunded Texas State Parks Board, a position he held for a decade. Colp was a San Antonio car dealer and a leader in the Texas Good Roads Association. With that background, he understood that parks were good for nature and public recreation, but also as economic engines. Working alongside his fellow Parks Board members (including Florence Martin, Phebe Warner, and Katie Welder), Colp criss-crossed the state to generate interest in park development, to secure gifts of small wayside parks from landowners, and to promote state funding. He was successful in arranging protection of Longhorn Cavern, in early campaigning for larger parks at Caddo Lake, Palo Duro Canyon, Padre Island and Bastrop’s Lost Pines, and in finding state dollars for professional architects and engineers to supervise federal CCC work crews in park improvements.