DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at Crystal Springs Dance Pavilion has to say — and friend, this one's worth pulling over for. Now it starts the way all good Texas stories start: somebody's diggin' in the dirt. The year is 1918, and a man named Samuel Cunningham — folks called him Papa Sam — is out at this very site excavating for gravel.
Just gravel. Ordinary business. But the ground had other ideas, because Papa Sam's crew hit an underground spring.
Crystal clear water, right there beneath the Texas soil. Papa Sam didn't panic. Papa Sam built a swimming pool.
He added a covered shelter to go with it, and in 1925 he opened the whole operation under the name Crystal Springs Dancing and Swimming. Now you could splash and you could dance, and apparently the people of Fort Worth had been waiting their whole lives for exactly that combination. But here's where the story stops being about a swimming hole and starts being about something a whole lot bigger.
The house band at Crystal Springs was a group called the Light Crust Doughboys — sponsored by the Light Crust Flour Company and running a regular radio show over on KFJZ. And the lineup they were carrying in those early years included a fiddle player named Bob Wills and a vocalist named Milton Brown. You may have heard those names.
If you haven't, you're about to understand why you should have. From 1930 to 1932, Wills and Brown stood on that stage and started blending Honky-tonk with jazz in a way that hadn't been done before. Night after night, late-night romps on a dance floor that held nine hundred people — and they packed it.
Consistently. Cunningham's son Henry was running a bus from downtown Fort Worth just to move the crowds out here, because the place was that popular. Some sources even hold — and the marker takes care to say "some sources" — that the guest list on certain nights included names like Bonnie and Clyde, Machine Gun Kelly, and Pretty Boy Floyd.
Whether those particular visitors came to dance or just to watch, history does not say with certainty. But when you're packin' nine hundred people a night, you probably weren't checking credentials at the door. Now, 1932 is when the road forks.
Brown and Wills both left the Doughboys to start their own separate projects. Wills formed the Texas Playboys and headed to Oklahoma. Brown stayed right there in Fort Worth, and the following year — 1933 — Fort Worth radio news crowned him "the King of Hillbilly Bands." Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies kept right on playing Crystal Springs, and the place kept right on swinging.
Then 1936 arrived, and with it a car accident that took Milton Brown's life. A tragic death — the marker calls it exactly that — and the loss settled over Crystal Springs like a long shadow. The hall carried on, but it was never quite the same.
Slowly, the years took their toll. And in 1966, the old dance hall was destroyed by a fire. You might think that's where the story ends.
But in 2011, the Texas legislature named Western Swing the official state music of Texas — specifically commemorating the unique genre that Wills and Brown created right here at Crystal Springs. A man digs for gravel. He finds a spring.
He builds a dance floor. Two musicians find each other on that stage and spend two years inventing something that eventually becomes the official music of an entire state. Papa Sam just wanted gravel.
Texas, as usual, had larger plans.
What the marker says
Samuel “Papa Sam” Cunningham was excavating for gravel at this site in 1918 when he discovered an underground spring. Cunningham built a swimming pool and a covered shelter and opened for business in 1925 as Crystal Springs Dancing and Swimming. The popularity of the dance hall was driven by the house band, The Light Crust Doughboys. Sponsored by the Light Crust Flour Company and performing a regular radio show on KFJZ, the Doughboys featured Bob Wills on fiddle and Milton Brown on vocals. Over the course of their 1930-32 shows at Crystal Springs, Wills and Brown pioneered a fusion of Honky-tonk and jazz that would later become known as Western Swing. They consistently packed the 900-person dance floor for late night romps, and Crystal Springs was so popular that Cunningham’s son, Henry, ran a bus to transport crowds from downtown Fort Worth. Some sources even hold that famous gangsters such as Bonnie and Clyde, Machine Gun Kelly and Pretty Boy Floyd visited Crystal Springs. In 1932, Brown and Wills both left the band to start their own separate projects. Wills formed the Texas Playboys and left for Oklahoma, while Brown stayed in Fort Worth. In 1933, Fort Worth radio news called Brown “the King of Hillbilly Bands.” Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies continued to play at Crystal Springs until his tragic death in a 1936 car accident. After this loss, Crystal Springs entered a slow decline; in 1966, the old dance hall was destroyed by a fire. In 2011, the Texas legislature named Western Swing the “official state music of Texas,” commemorating the unique genre that Wills and Brown created at Crystal Springs.