Texas has changed quite a bit over the years, as is readily seen in our vast photograph collection. To help bring some of those changes to life, we’ve created a “Texas over Time” series of GIFs that will illustrate the construction and renovations of buildings, changing aerial views, and more. Our collections are especially strong on Waco and Baylor images, but look for some views beyond the Heart of Texas, too.
Lover’s Leap, Cameron Park, Waco; undated photos and postcards
- Lover’s Leap was originally part of land purchased by the Cameron family in 1917 to be donated to Camp MacArthur.
- This area of the park was named after the legend of Waco Indian princess Wah-Wah-Tee and her Apache lover, whose love was looked down on by the rest of the Waco tribe. As the story goes, they were determined to be together eternally and jumped off the cliffs together at what is now Lover’s Leap.
- The incline of the road to get to Lover’s Leap is so steep that Model Ts had to be driven up it in reverse, as they did not have the correct gear otherwise.
Factoids from Mark E. Firmin’s excellent book, William Cameron Park: A Centennial History, 1910-2010.
The images above can be found in our general photo and postcard files. See our Cameron Park Flickr set to get a closer look at these images and a few other historic and scenic views of the park.
GIF and factoids by Braxton Ray, archives student assistant