Where it all started

What nearly happened is too terrible to imagine.

It’s 2003. Blue Hole – a beloved but rundown, privately-owned swimming spot – is up for sale. A developer has already drawn plans to shoehorn a giant 350-home subdivision around it, and build a private tourist lodge dominating the iconic swimming hole area. It will change Wimberley – forever – into a much different kind of town.

Only a miracle could prevent it. A miracle is what we got.

Several people, the nucleus of what would soon become Friends of Blue Hole, quickly devised a desperate, far-fetched but beautiful dream; a city park instead of a subdivision. Led by then-Mayor Steve Klepfer and Councilmember Marilee Wood, the dream became a plan to buy the land for the newly incorporated city (annual budget, $400,000), and make it into a park for all. All they needed was $3.1 million.

As one of those original dreamers, Wood has been a front row witness to the full history and miracle of Blue Hole Regional Park.

“Blue Hole was born under a lucky star,” Wood says. “Public funding, private philanthropy, availability of design firms, contractors and local volunteerism all came together. The timing was magical.”

Magical, but far from easy. First the dream needed someone to take the risk of buying the land with their own money and holding on to it until the city could find the funds.

That lucky star worked overtime. The Peter Way family had generation-deep roots in Wimberley; Way volunteered to buy the land on his faith that Wimberley would come through. A Task Force including Wood, her husband Tevis Grinstead, Carolyn Nichols and other founding members of Friends of Blue Hole, was created to raise the money. It had amazing success, including grants and contributions from Hays County, Texas Parks and Wildlife, the Burdine Johnson Foundation, the LCRA and many individual small and large donors. Wood well remembers the excitement of those times.

“The city repaid the Way family and took possession of the park land in an astonishing 18 months,” Wood said. “Even those of us who developed the idea were amazed. During a 30 year career, never had I experienced a project so touched by a certain magic from the very beginning.”

“Little did we know that we were embarking on the creation of a park that would win nationwide accolades and would grow quickly into a sought after destination for nearly 50,000 local and area visitors by summer 2017.”

The City moved into a phase of citizen participation and the development of a plan for the park. A 24-member stakeholder group appointed by the City and a community survey confirmed that public access to water was the top park priority. In 2005, Friends of Blue Hole was formally created as a non-profit 501 (c) (3) solely devoted to raising funds for the park and advocating on issues related to Blue Hole. In 2006, the city selected the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower (LBJWC) Center to create a master plan for Blue Hole Park. The plan cost the city $115,000; Friends of Blue Hole contributed $105,000, the city the other $10,000.

“Blue Hole was born under a lucky star. Public funding, private philanthropy, availability of design firms, contractors and local volunteerism all came together. The timing was magical.”
Marilee Wood, Friends of Blue Hole

In 2009, with Friends of Blue Hole an active participant, the new Austin branch of the much-awarded international firm Design Workshop was selected, from many applicants, as the park design team.

The construction estimate for the ambitious new park was $4 million. Donations came from major contributors such as Hays County and Texas Parks and Wildlife. Friends independently raised almost $1 million for capital construction.

The city-owned park officially opened June 1, 2011. Phase I included the swimming hole and all its landscaping, parking area, park office and public showers, picnic area, the Amphitheatre, and the swimming hole overlook.

When Phase II became a funding problem for the city, the Friends board took a big risk, obtaining a $300,000 bank loan to make completion of the Phase II happen. Phase II opened in 2012 with the soccer fields, children’s play scape, upland road, sand volleyball court and soccer fields, followed by the Pavilion and restrooms. The Friends board finished paying off its bank loan in 2016, long after thousands of visitors were already enjoying the restored swimming hole, natural areas, trails, and recreational features.

Phase III, focusing on landscaping and environmental restoration, remains on hold, due to drought conditions and the lack of recycled water.

Friends of Blue Hole continues to work to make Blue Hole the best park possible, to benefit Wimberley for generations to come. Friends makes no bones about it, they could not have done any of this without the contributions, input and donations of the people, organizations and companies of Wimberley and especially, Wood says, the support of the city.

“Three Mayors - Steve Klepfer, Tom Haley, and Bob Flocke, and eight Councils brought this Park to life,” Wood said. “And since then, every mayor and every council has come on board, whatever their politics, to keep this great park the gem of Wimberley that is already known state-wide and farther. I hope with all my being that will continue. I believe Blue Hole is the beating heart of Wimberley.”