Jones Lake State Park - History

History

The area surrounding Jones and Salters Lakes at Jones Lake State Park was settled by migrants for Europe in the late 1720s and early 1730s. Jones Lake was originally known as Woodward Lake a local justice of the peace. It was renamed Jones Lake for Isaac Jones a local land owner who donated the land on which Elizabethtown was built in 1773. Salters Lake is named for an American Revolutionary War heroine, Sallie Salter. Salter spied on Tories that were camped near Elizabethtown on the Cape Fear River.

The government of the state of North Carolina began to take an interest in Jones and Salters Lakes and other Carolina Bays in the 19th century. The North Carolina General Assembly blocked all further private claims on lakes. Soon after, the state assembly pass legislation that granted ownership of all lakes greater than 500 acres (2.02 km²) in Cumberland, Columbus and Bladen Counties to the state. The formation of Jones Lake, Lake Waccamaw and Singletary Lake State Parks can be traced back to this piece of legislation.

The growth of the cotton, turpentine and lumber industries in the area of Jones Lake State Park eventually was greater than what the soil could support. The fertility of the farmland was depleted and most of the standing timber had been clear cut from Bladen County. The land could no longer support the demands of the people living on the land. Farmers were no longer able to produce sustainable crops and many were forced to leave their farms.

The National Park Service began purchasing the land surrounding Jones and Salters Lakes in 1936 for a recreational demonstration project. Out of work young men were employed by the Civilian Conservation Corps, which was established by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 during the Great Depression many of the facilities of Jones Lake State Park. The land was managed by the Resettlement Administration until 1939.

Jones Lake State Park was opened in 1939 during the segregation era as a state park for the use of African Americans. The black communities of southeastern North Carolina used Jones Lake State Park for family reunions, baptisms, and church picnics. A result of racial segregation of the state park systems was that the parks for blacks were left largely underfunded and thereby undeveloped. The area in and surrounded Jones Lake remains largely wild and undeveloped offering visitors a chance to see two Carolina Bays in a nearly natural state.

Jones Lake State Park, like Singletary Lake State Park just 13 miles (21 km) to the southeast, was used by soldiers training for World War II at nearby Camp Davis for special anti-craft training. The state park also received national attention in 1980 when astronomers gathered at the park to view a solar eclipse.