Blue Mound Fitness Park and Walking Trail

11/12/2022

A cool but productive work day at Blue Mound!

11/07/2022

Hello all my Blue Mound Walking Park friends! Saturday, we are having a work day (to further the fitness equipment and pad) at the walking park. I would love if you would be on my team! Let me know here or PM me.

08/12/2020

The storm clouds brewing to the east of Nocona were spectacular tonight! I could not help but get a view from the top!!! Thank you to the Nunneley’s for painting the rest area. It looks great!!! Lots of progress coming soon!!! Amy Jackson Nunneley

Contact Yesika Rodriguez if you would like to help with that progress ♥️

07/20/2020

Directors of the Blue Mound Fitness Park and Walking Trail (BMFP), Bob Herndon and Kyle Reynolds accepted a $10,000 donation from President Phil Staley with Legend Bank for the rest area structure at the park. The BMFP Rest Area will be a covered area with several benches, electrical charging stations and a water fountain.
The Groundbreaking for the Blue Mound Fitness Park and Walking Trail was January 30th, 2020 and since then many companies and individuals have joined the effort to finish the park. Current volunteers are organizing to assemble and place the fitness equipment. The rest area is soon to be built. The final phase will require hands on labor to finish out the walking trails, signage and final naturescaping.
The combination of pathways will total a mile of challenging trails. These areas, as well as the gazebo, will incorporate panoramic views of the surrounding areas, native grasses, natural rock formations and areas to sit in quiet reflective solitude. Upon completion, the Park will be turned over to the City of Nocona and become a City Nature Park.
Directors and Board Members of the Blue Mound Fitness Park include Kyle Reynolds, Christopher Nunneley, Suzanne Storey, Jim L. Keck, Bob Herndon, Yesika Rodriguez and Chase Fenoglio. If you are interested in volunteering with the project, please get in touch with Yesika Rodriguez at 940-841-1010 for more information. The Blue Mound Fitness Park project is a non-profit Texas corporation. The board invites you to like their page for updates.

07/14/2020

The parking area ready to go and it is holding up fabulously with all this rain we have had! We are super happy about that! Let me tell you what is currently happening. Next week, we hope, we will be receiving the fitness equipment for the fitness area and we need some volunteers to help us out. Please contact Yesika Rodriguez as she is our volunteer coordinator. She told me today that we need:
1. Three days of folks wanting to help put the equipment together.
2. Drinking Water donated to the effort.
3. Three days of lunches for the volunteers.
Thank you to each and every person and entity that has donated to this effort! We appreciate it!!!

02/13/2020

FOLKLORE:

From the Memory Files of Jerry Payne:

I knew since Chief Nocona roamed our area and the huge battle that was fought on Blue Mound (at least that is what I imagined happen), there had to be Indian Braves buried under all those big old flat rocks on Blue Mound. I took daddy's shovels and piks up there and started digging under one of the rocks to uncover the Indians remains. And, I believe I recruited Lew Lobban and Mike Bennett to help me in the attempted "Grave Robbery". Needless to say, we didn't find any remains---or rattle snakes.

02/06/2020

Groundbreaking for the Blue Mound Fitness Park and Walking Trail was Thursday January 30th, 2020 at 4pm at the Historic site of Blue Mound. With an elevation of over 1,000 feet, this is one of North Montague County’s highest vantage points, located just north of the city limits of Nocona, Texas.

This stately Mound offered a look-out point for Comanche Indians and later for Cowboys pushing Longhorns on Trail Drives. More recently, used as another type of Look-out point by Love-Struck Teenagers. Now, this famous High Point will offer the Public an area to get away; to the quiet; to walk and reflect; to enjoy the distant views afforded by this great High Mound; and, to share a moment with others in the shade of the Gazebo.

The project began in 2015 with the donation by Cecil Fenoglio of Blue Mound to the City of Nocona.
Mr. Fenoglio died in late 2016 but before his passing, he was able to sit in the shade of the gazebo and envision the highpoint as being a Nature Area where others could enjoy this historic site that has been a favorite gathering point for centuries. Fenoglio even specified his desire for the copper colored roof and handpicked the millstone set in the center of gazebo. Blue Mound was in Fenoglio’s family in the 1920’s and 30’s before being sold to W.C. “Woody” Marshall as an Oil Field Supply yard. Fenoglio repurchased the land from Virginia Johnson in 2010. Tom Horn, local Real Estate Agent, Rotarian and friend of Fenoglio thought this project would be a great community service project for Nocona Rotary. Mr. Horn, asked Nocona Rotary Club to assume this project in 2016 and through Tom’s tireless efforts, working closely with Fenoglio as they laid the groundwork for this project. The Blue Mound Fitness Park project, (BMFP) a non-profit Texas corporation was formed in 2019 for that purpose.

This year the BMFP project plans to build the parking areas, entry gates and fencing, bring electrical power and water lines in, construct the exercise area, build the rest shelter and mow the path of the walking trail. This is possible with generous donations of both money and material/equipment sources including Nocona Rotary, District 5790 Rotary, Tony Barger, an anonymous donor of steel pipe for fencing and gates, Pentex Energy and Mike Shipman and his Nocona High School students.

The final phase will require hands on labor to finish out the walking trails, signage and final nature scaping. The combination of pathways will total a mile of challenging trails. These areas, as well as the gazebo, will incorporate panoramic views of the surrounding areas, native grasses, natural rock formations and areas to sit in quiet reflective solitude.

Directors and Board Members of the Blue Mound Fitness Park include Kyle Reynolds, Christopher Nunneley, Suzanne Storey, Jim L. Keck, Bob Herndon, Yesika Rodriguez and Chase Fenoglio. If you are interested in volunteering with the project, please get in touch with any Board Member. The board invites you to like their page for updates.

The formal fundraising and donation site will be set up Spring of 2020 and the BMFP expects this to be a 2-3 year project. Upon completion, the Park will be turned over to the City of Nocona and become a City Nature Park.

02/06/2020

FOLKLORE

Memory Files of Jerry Payne:

When in High School, probably the summer of 1961, a bunch of us boys in two or three cars, parked on the dirt road on the south side next to the old muddy tank on the east end of Blue Mound! We crawled over the fence, stripped off naked and played football in the old tank. The mud was at least two feet deep with old tin cans and broken bottles on the bottom. I don't remember all the "skinny dippers" but Gary Young, Gary Miller, Jimmy Sewell (I believe), Johnny Coleman, and two or three more were involved. We didn't get caught by the girls and no one drowned or cut their foot off! FUN and REALLY DARING!

From Jerry Payne!

02/04/2020

FOLKLORE

Memory Files of Linda Burnett Eldred:

I was 9 years old when I got my bicycle from my dad. My bike was special, it had a basket connected to the handlebars, a seat on the back for a rider, it even had a light and a horn. Having a bike gave me the mobility and freedom to ride all over town. I even rode it across town to South Ward School every day.

Living close to Blue Mound, I was always fascinated by the rumors that Indians were buried up there. One hot summer day, I decided to ride my bike to Blue Mound to dig up one of those Indians. Wouldn’t it be fun! I put a fruit jar full of water in my basket along with a small shovel or maybe a big spoon. When I got to the top, I looked around a bit and chose my spot to dig by one of the big cedar trees that grew there. My plan was to pour the water on the ground to soften the earth making it easier to dig. (I accept the fact that I was young and not very smart). As I carefully loosened the lid on my jar of water, a small snake crawled over my foot! I threw the fruit jar straight up in the air and at the same time I was jumping on my Western Flyer and headed home! I never tried that again. Guess that old Indian and little snake are still there.

01/30/2020

Thanks for everyone braving the cold to come out to see the groundbreaking today.

01/27/2020

JULY 24TH, 1958:
Montague County Centennial Celebration
I was made aware of this really cool event by Tom Mike Horn. In 1958, during the height of the Montague County Centennial celebration, Tom was about 14 or 15 years old. He remembesr the Boys Scouts putting together a bonfire atop Blue Mound to coincide with other Montague County Scouts building and light bonfires atop their local mounds, bluffs, peaks in the county. According to the article in The Nocona News on JULY 24TH, 1958 on July 26th, Saturday night at 9:30pm, bonfires would be lit (in memory of Indian lookouts) on Blue Mound, Queen's Peak near Bowie, Jim Ned Lookout near Dye Mound, Ketchum's Bluff across the Red River in Oklahoma and Gordon's Mountain near Saint Jo. Tom remembers local businessman, Dickie Walker, helping with the setting of telephone poles for the bonfire and people donating all types of material including old tires. He recalls seeing the other bonfires on the various high points that night. Thanks Tom for a GREAT Blue Mound memory and Thank you to The Nocona News for the wealth searchable info on the Texas History website!

Weekly newspaper from Nocona, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.