DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Somewhere in Newton County, there's a piece of ground that's carried more than one name and served more than one purpose, and that story starts back in 1937. That year, the Southwestern Settlement and Development Company deeded land over to Newton County.
Just like that, the county had itself a park. It got named Woods Park, after the company's own surveyor, a man by the name of C.A. Woods.
Now that's a quiet kind of immortality, having a park carry your name. Not a monument, not a courthouse. A park.
Where folks come to breathe. Well, Newton County residents took to it right away, using it for recreation, and before long the federal government took notice. The Works Progress Administration, the WPA, that New Deal program, came in and improved the park through a building project.
So now you've got a surveyor's legacy and a New Deal's handiwork, all on the same plot of ground. Then Newton High School entered the picture. Between 1939 and 1969, they used Woods Park intermittently as an athletic field.
Young people running and competing on land that started out as a deed transfer. That's the kind of layering that happens to ground worth keeping. The story doesn't stop there.
Since 1980, that same property has hosted the Newton County Fair, and today it's known as the Newton County Fairgrounds. Same land. Different chapters.
C.A. Woods probably never imagined any of it.
What the marker says
In 1937, the Southwestern Settlement and Development Company deeded land to Newton County. This property would become known as Woods Park, named for the company's surveyor, C.A. Woods. County resident sused the park for recreation and soon the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal program administered by the federal government, improved the park through a building project. Between 1939 and 1969, Newton High School used the aprk intermittently as an athletic field. Since 1980, the park has hosted the Newton County Fair and is now known as the Newton County Fair Grounds. (2008)