George Bush Park

George Bush Park is a county park in Houston, Texas in the United States. It covers 7800acre. It was previously known as Cullen-Barker Park.HistoryThe federal government opened the Barker Reservoir in the 1940s, mainly for Buffalo Bayou flood control. The present area occupies about half of the original area.The park stayed under the name Cullen-Barker Park until January 1997, when Commissioner Steve Radack proposed the name George Bush Park in honor of the 41st president of the United States George H. W. Bush. In May, the former president attended the opening ceremony, and the park received its new name.Due to the ongoing Texas drought, on 13 September 2011, Houston Firefighters were dispatched to the park responding to a wildfire. The fire quickly grew and the firefighters were sent to the north levee near I-10 to wait for the fire to come to them and stop it there. At one point the fire was one mile wide, consuming 1,500-acres of the park, with the cause under investigation.Pre-settlementBefore the area was known as part of Houston, the marsh was part of the Stephen F. Austin colony. After settlers in the area moved out of the park, much of its land was sold to ranchers.In the 1880s, a railway named the Texas Western Narrow Gauge Railroad ran trains from Houston to surrounding areas. Barely lasting one decade, the line was forced to shut down due to bankruptcy, yet still the park considers it a heritage.Cattle and farms occupied the area throughout the early 1900s, until the it became parkland in the mid-1940s.