El Campo is situated in the center of the Coastal Plains of Texas. Because of the bountiful native grasses, these plains were used as open range for cattle by Spanish explorers, later by Mexican cattlemen and then settlers brought in by Colonist Stephen F. Austin. After Texas won its independence from Mexico, German, Irish and Swedish immigrants moved into the area and cattle production remained the principal income of the people.

In 1882, a railroad camp (section No. 230) was situated where El Campo now stands. The little camp was first called “Prairie Switch” because it served as a switching point on the Houston-Victoria Railroad and a shipping point on the New York, Texas and Mexican Railroad. In fact, during the mid-1880s, El Campo was the largest prairie hay shipping point in the entire United States.

“The designation ‘Pearl of the Prairie’ was given to the site by American cowboys, perhaps because the light in the section house looked like a pearl across the prairie at night.” In the late 1880s, railroads were becoming much more extensive in Texas. A continuation of a railroad by Count Telferner from Houston to Victoria allowed easier shipment of cattle. Herds to be shipped by rail were handled by predominantly Mexican cowboys who would camp for some time holding the herds for shipment at “Prairie Switch.” In 1889, the settlement took the Mexican name “The Camp” and named it “El Campo.”

It didn’t take farmers long to realize that the rich blackland and mixed soils along with an abundance of ground water, could be better utilized for other crops besides hay, although in 1901 over 1,000 cars of hay were bought by El Campo merchants. Soon cotton, rice and corn became the crops of choice. Settlers from other regions and countries began moving into the area and soon a cotton gin was built and the Farmers Warehouse established for marketing land and purchasing farm products and supplies.

The mid 1930s brought the newly discovered commodity of “liquid gold” as oil and gas spawned the way of the petroleum and oil field related industries. The petroleum industry also brought new life and spurred on the development of new, more modern technology, as well as diversifying the local economic base.

El Campo Museum of Natural History

This is a small museum filled with over 400 big-game trophies that were hunted on five continents by local doctor E.A. Weinheimer as well as Steve McManus. In addition, there are also displays of shells, fossils, fish, and other natural history items. The El Campo Museum has been actively drawing thousands of visitors every year for over 45 years! We enjoyed touring the small museum. It was an unexpected surprise and well worth the hour spent here.

Park Review – El Campo Lost Lagoon

For those of you who know us well, no we didn’t get a dog! Clyde came from a neighboring farm house every day to hang out and play his version of fetch. His version is to chase down the ball then sit down and wait for us to come fetch it from him so we can repeat the whole thing all over again. Otherwise, he was very well mannered – never barking or being obnoxious and leaving other peoples dogs alone. When we went in at night, he went back home to hang out on their porch. We hope he gets a trim before it gets too hot, but I bet he won’t.

See this article about the mansion and pool that was sold to become El Campo Lost Lagoon.

Rating: ⭐⭐
Location: El Campo, TX
Type: Commercial Park
Check-in/Check-out times: 1:00/11:00
Site Quality / Amenities: Roads and sites are concrete with grass(weeds) between the sites. Each site has a picnic table but nothing else. The sites are full hook up on city utilities and they were well laid out. The big attraction for this park are the water activities with a Kiddie Lagoon (splash area), large pool with a lazy river and a large hot tub, separate pool for two large water slides and a water volleyball pool. In addition there is a large Wibit Sports Park. If you prefer, there is also a large fishing pond. There is a playground for kids and a remote control car track for kids of all ages. They have completed a large stage visible from the pool for summertime concerts. There is a restaurant and bar onsite in the summer.
Access: Easy access from US-59 on the east side of El Campo.
Staff: We had minimal interaction with the office staff. We did meet the owner and he was nice and clearly cared about the park but made it clear that their main focus was on summer season visitors and not winter Texans. The park is open and you can stay there but the rest of the amenities are not open.
Cellular/WiFi: Verizon achieved about 76.5 Mbps downloads and 3 Mbps uploads on 4G LTE. There were only small trees in the park and access to Starlink was great.
Restaurants: Pinchers – Good seafood restaurant along US-59. A bit expensive but the plates were large enough to make two meals. Pitt Viper BBQ – The BBQ was decent but a bit too fatty for my liking.
Nearby parks: We didn’t look at any other parks nearby.
What we liked: Nice, well laid out park. We were one of only 8-10 RVs in the park at the first of March so it was quiet.
What we didn’t like: Full summer season rates started March 1’st even though none of the amenities opened until March 8th – the day we left. It would have been nice to be able to enjoy at least the pool, hot tub and lazy river for the extra $$$ we paid.
Verdict: This is a nice park but there isn’t much to do in the area so not much to draw us here unless it’s the summer season. As it’s set up to be a resort, costs for everything are expensive. Even though they advertise for Winter Texans, with none of the amenities open and not a lot to do in the area we’d probably skip this park in the future. With the potential for over 1000 people in the pool in the summer, that doesn’t sound particularly interesting either!