Mildred Hempel likes to take photographs. She likes to photograph birds, otters, and even the dragonflies that flit like miniature hawks across the marshes of Fairfield Lake State Park, a meandering preserve 90 minutes southeast of Dallas. “It’s about patience,” Hempel told me. “You sit still and wait, and the dragonflies will fly right back to the same spot.”
Photography is the pursuit of the perfect moment—the image you can freeze and endlessly revisit, undiminished and undimmed. It’s a thing that lingers, a constant in your life. For Hempel, Fairfield Lake State Park has been one of those constants. She first visited as a girl in 1977, back when the coal mine on the other side of the artificial lake still ran, and the Big Brown Power Plant kept the water warm even in December. For nearly 50 years, thousands like her have come, lured by the quiet campgrounds, the packed fisheries, and the miles of trails. Some are local, like Hempel. Others come from further afield: Waco, Dallas, even Oklahoma, making periodic trips. You could do that: pop in once a year, walk the trails, do a little fishing. The park would be there for you. Change as it might with the seasons, it wasn’t going away.
Then, in mid-February, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) announced that Fairfield Lake State Park—long leased from Irving-based energy company Vistra—had been sold to a private developer. TPWD had 120 days to clear its property off the site before the new owners took over; the park would close February 28, sold to a developer who planned to turn it into a private gated community. The announcement made news throughout the state, sparking petitions, public outcry, and promises of action in the Legislature.
Today, the park’s future remains in doubt. By the time you’re reading this, however, the gates have locked. The facilities are closed, quite possibly forever. And the people who love the park—staff, locals, and visitors—have been forced to say goodbye.
