Fin & Feather Hunting and Fishing Club
Wills Point, Van Zandt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
On May 6, 1901, 21 Wills Point men met in the law office of W.B. Wynne to organize the Fin & Feather Hunting and Fishing Club to be located at Thorn Lake. The Texas & Pacific Railroad Company built Thorn Lake to provide water for their steam engines. In June, Mr. and Mrs. H.F. Goodnight deeded six acres surrounding the lake; the new park was named after the couple. The charter members of the club felt the location would make an ideal meeting place, and plans were made to improve the lake, stock it with fish and provide boats for members and other visitors. In August, 1901, a reunion meeting of old settlers and Confederate veterans was held at the club; the reunion, which in later years included the Woodmen of the World, Knights of Pythias, Women’s Temperance Union, Farmers Union and other organizations, became an annual event punctuated by festivities including speeches, music, dancing and baseball games. Church groups and other organizations also used the facility. Visitors to the lake also included noted area citizens and individuals who used the setting for marriage proposals. The club purchased additional property in 1914 and in 1920. In 1934, the club reorganized. In 1994, the Fin & Feather Club purchased the lake from the Union Pacific Railroad Company for $30,000. Today, the Fin & Feather Club continues to care for the lake and establishment. For more than 100 years, the club has provided and maintained this place of history, festivity and community.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On May 6, 1901, twenty-one Wills Point men organized the Fin & Feather Hunting and Fishing Club at Thorn Lake, a reservoir the Texas & Pacific Railroad had built to water its steam engines. Stocked with fish and ringed by donated parkland, the lake became a gathering place for annual reunions of old settlers and Confederate veterans, along with fraternal orders, church groups, and community celebrations of music, dancing, and baseball. The club bought the lake outright in 1994 and still maintains it more than a century on.
Why it matters
The club shows how the infrastructure of the railroad age was repurposed into the recreational and civic gathering spaces that bound small towns together.
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Themes & tags
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