Sulphur Park
Shiner, Lavaca County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the summer of 1930, farmer/rancher and large landowner Jake Kurtz set aside four acres of his property on the west side of the newly-paved Texas State Highway 95 between Shiner and Moulton to build a large concrete swimming pool and recreational area. He named it “Sulphur Park” after the rich sulphur-laced mineral water coming from a newly dug 73-foot well adjacent to the property on the north bank of the nearby Ponton Creek. The pool was excavated that summer by George Jassen using horse and mule-drawn scrapers and heavy equipment. The Shiner Light Plant worked for two months that summer to extend the electrical line out to Mr. Kurtz’s Property. Measuring 120 feet long by 40 feet wide, the pool featured a deep side for diving and shallow side for wading. Outdoor wooden picnic tables were added under large trees for shade as well as bath houses, a concession stand, adjoining baseball field, a covered concrete dance floor and country store. The pool’s grand opening, or “Splash Day,” was Sunday, August 31, 1930. Hundreds attended the opening and feasted on barbeque and enjoyed a turkey shoot sponsored by the Shiner Gun Club, baseball tournament, and music provided by Schultz Band. The pool was open in the summer months and the park area continuously in good weather and attracted thousands of people, sometimes in one day. As the only pool in the area and with family atmosphere, Sulphur Park became a haven for the community, especially during hard times. For more than sixty years, Sulphur Park was an oasis in the country for the Shiner and Moulton communities and contributed to the recreational history of the area.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the summer of 1930, landowner Jake Kurtz set aside four acres beside the newly paved State Highway 95 to build a huge concrete swimming pool fed by a sulphur-laced mineral well. Excavated with horse- and mule-drawn scrapers, the 120-foot pool opened on "Splash Day" that August with barbecue, a turkey shoot, a baseball tournament, and live music before hundreds of visitors. For over sixty years Sulphur Park—with its dance floor, ball field, and picnic grounds—was a beloved country oasis for the Shiner and Moulton communities.
Why it matters
It reflects how homegrown recreation spots gave rural Texans a shared refuge and simple joy through the Depression and the decades that followed.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The summer of 1930 was a hard, uncertain time to be starting anything in rural Texas. The stock market had crashed the previous autumn, and the long slide into the Great Depression was already dragging at farm prices and family savings across the country. In a farming county like Lavaca, where cotton and cattle set the rhythm of life, money was tight and about to get tighter.
Yet this was also a moment of quiet transformation on the Texas landscape. The automobile was remaking how country people moved, and the state was busy paving highways that had recently been dirt tracks. A newly paved State Highway 95 now ran between Shiner and Moulton, and a smooth road changed everything: a place out in the countryside could suddenly draw a crowd from miles around.
Against that backdrop of scarcity and new mobility, a landowner deciding to build something purely for community joy was a small act of optimism — a bet that even in lean years, people would find a way to gather, cool off, and celebrate.
People & events
The story belongs to Jake Kurtz, a farmer, rancher, and large landowner who set aside four acres of his own property along the west side of the new highway. What drew him to the spot was underground: a freshly dug 73-foot well on the north bank of nearby Ponton Creek brought up water rich with sulphur-laced minerals, and it gave both the water and the place its name — Sulphur Park.
Building the pool was old-fashioned, back-breaking work. George Jassen excavated the great basin that summer using horse- and mule-drawn scrapers and heavy equipment, shaping a concrete pool 120 feet long and 40 feet wide, with a deep end for diving and a shallow end for wading. Meanwhile the Shiner Light Plant spent two months stringing an electrical line all the way out to the property so the park could have light and life after dark.
The payoff came on Sunday, August 31, 1930 — a grand opening christened “Splash Day.” Hundreds turned out to feast on barbecue, cheer a baseball tournament, and take part in a turkey shoot sponsored by the Shiner Gun Club, all while the Schultz Band played. Around the pool grew a whole recreation ground: shaded picnic tables under big trees, bath houses, a concession stand, a country store, a ball field, and a covered concrete dance floor.
Its place in the American story
Across America in the early twentieth century, the swimming pool became one of the great democratic pleasures — a place where a whole community could escape the heat together. Most of those pools rose in cities and towns. What makes Sulphur Park worth remembering is that it brought that experience out into the open countryside, built by a single landowner rather than a municipality.
It also reflects a broader American truth about the Depression years: hard times did not kill the appetite for simple, shared fun, they sharpened it. As the only pool in the area, offered with a deliberately family atmosphere, Sulphur Park became a haven — an affordable oasis in a stretch of years when affordable joy was worth more than ever.
And it captures the moment the automobile rewrote rural life. A country pool only makes sense once ordinary families can drive to it on a paved road, and the fact that it sometimes drew thousands in a single day shows how quickly good roads turned scattered farm communities into a single weekend crowd.
If you visit
Stand at the marker along Highway 95 between Shiner and Moulton and let the setting do the storytelling. This is gently rolling farm country, quiet and open, and the first thing to notice is how easy it is to reach — the very thing that once made a country pool possible here.
Look toward nearby Ponton Creek and picture the well that gave the place its mineral water and its name, and the four acres that once held a great concrete basin, a dance floor, a ball field, and picnic tables scattered under shade trees. For more than sixty years this was where the Shiner and Moulton communities came to cool off and gather; reading the marker, you can almost hear the splash and the band.
It makes a rewarding stop on a leisurely drive through Lavaca County, where small towns and their histories sit close together. Bring your imagination, take your time, and enjoy the same wide Texas sky and open country air that once drew whole crowds down this road on a hot summer Sunday.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Jake Kurtz
Themes & tags
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