Large public park is Blessing in aptly named rural Texas town

La Conner has many blessings – a temperate climate, its location along a saltwater channel and near the mouth of a scenic river, conifer forests and views of snow-capped mountains.

What’s lacking, however, is available land to develop spacious multi-purpose public parks.

By contrast, the small community of Blessing, Texas is beset with brutally hot, humid summer weather, is nearly 20 miles from the Little Colorado River and almost 25 miles distant from Matagorda Bay, has no mountains and the nearest thick woodlands is a palm tree farm 15 miles to the east.

But what it does have, thanks t...